A Ritual Of Romance
by velonicaSushi
Summary: "This is a story about assassins." Set in the modern world. Tintin/OC POST 2012 MOVIEVERSE! Better summary on Chapter 18.
1. Chapter 1

**Title: A Ritual Of Romance  
>Pairing: TintinOC**

**Hi guys.**

**I guess most of you may know me from my previous story, The Secret of the Unicorn, which I deleted it because I'm tired of the haters crap.**

**Here I am with my new story, set in the modern world. *throws confetti***

**This is based on the movie verse, that means no characters in the comics (which did not appear in the movie) will appear, and that I don't know the plot of the comics, so if anything was the same it was purely coincidental. (IF YOU WANT TO FLAME ME, GO SOMEWHERE ELSE AND HATE.)**

**Hop on to the story, and hope for a new beginning!**

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><p><em><strong>"We met in an unexpected situation."<strong>_

On a fine Monday morning, our lovely Belgian detective, Tintin, was waking up to the gentle snuffles of his white terrier dog, Snowy. The little dog was yelping and jumping up and down on his chest through the thick blankets of his bed. Tintin rubbed his eyes, squinting his eyes at the bright sunlight shining into his room, tucking himself back into bed as he ignored Snowy. "It's too early, Snowy. I want to sleep." He remembered that he was typing out the story of the _Unicorn_ the night earlier, and had fell asleep at a late time. 5am, to be precise. He always claimed that working one day before the deadline can boost his memory of the incredible adventure. Tintin always passed his works on time, so there was nothing to worry about. The readers won't know that he's writing the story one day before it hits the papers anyway.

Snowy gave out a low whine, before a plan took form in his head. He leaped off the bed, running towards Tintin's office, and began to topple things over, creating huge noises as stuff from his table - souvenirs from his previous adventures, the latest being a diamond shaped amber topaz from Captain Haddock - fell onto the floor. Snowy was careful to knock over stuff that will not break upon making contact with the floor.

Tintin heard something - no, lots of things - crashed from outside his bedroom. There was nobody in his house at this time of day. Knowing Snowy, he would sit and stare at the floor guiltily if he had accidentally toppled over something. So what was this noise early in the morning? Was it a robbery? Did Snowy tried to wake him up because he saw somebody sneaking in his house? Tintin shot wide awake, flipping the thick blanket over his body, getting up on his legs, scrambling to his living room to apprehend the early thief. Nope, there was nobody there. _My office! , _thought Tintin, and dashed into his office, grabbing a heavy flashlight to defend himself. He bursted into his office, to see Snowy resting his paws on a telescope, getting ready to take it down.

"Snowy! What are you doing?" Tintin demanded, and the terrier got shocked, crashing against the telescope, knocking it down nevertheless. The journalist stepped forward, gently pulling his dog out from the mess, and glared at him. "Bad dog." Tintin managed to say to Snowy. He cannot bring himself to get angry on his dog. After all, Snowy is probably just trying to wake him up. Tintin looked around the room, taking in the sights of stuff all over the floor.

"It's time to buy an alarm clock."

**xXx**

It took Tintin quite some while to finish arranging the stuff back into place in his office. By the time he checked the wall clock in his living room, he realized that he was going to be late for work, and his story of the _Unicorn _was still laying on his desk. "Snowy, we're late!" Tintin said and quickly brushed his teeth, washed the sleepiness off his face, changed into his proper clothing and grabbed the jacket on his couch, covering himself with it as he exited his apartment with Snowy trailing behind him.

Just as Tintin had took a step outside his apartment, he saw a girl who was rushing down from upstairs as well, holding a pair of roller skates in her hand, a sling bag across her shoulder. Lucky for them that they didn't knock into each other. Her black hair was flowing messily behind her shoulder, the hazel glint in her eyes reflected panic in it. "Excuse me!" she said, and ran past Tintin, not even bothering to greet her neighbor just downstairs from her apartment. She dashed to the front door, strapping on her roller skates in mere seconds, and skated out of sight, heading down the streets. Tintin tried to go after her to say hello, but her skates proved to be much faster than Tintin.

Snowy woofed beside him.

"Oh, how could I almost forget it! I need to go to _Le Soir _to hand in my story!" Tintin said his thoughts out aloud, and quickly rushed to another direction, different from the route that the girl made. "Stay at home, Snowy! And don't break anything!"

He had managed to catch a taxi, reached the publishing company and headed straight towards the editor's office. He came to an abrupt halt in front of his editor's office, ran his fingers through his ginger hair, and knocked gently at the door.

"Come in," the editor's deep voice rang from inside the room. Tintin noticed that his editor was not feeling entirely cheerful this morning from his tone. He could only hope that it had nothing to do with his story. Tintin entered the room, and saw that his editor's desk was splattered with photos. He had never seen his boss like this. Usually he was such a neat person. _This must be a new case, _thought Tintin as he put down his file on a side of his editor's desk, and made his way close to the older man inside the office to take a better look at the photos.

The photos on the editor's desk were images of blood. A whole lot of blood. On a man's body. He had a handsome face, Tintin noticed. He was also a blonde. A peaceful expression was on his face, far too peaceful for somebody who was killed in such a horrid way. Another photo showed his mouth being opened by one of the police officers on duty, a rose laying inside the mouth of the man. The rose was part white and part red, which could be a very pretty rose if it was not sitting inside some dead man's mouth. The stem of a rose - Tintin deduced it from the thorns - was circled around the neck of the body, its thorns prickling into the flesh of the man, drawing blood from it.

That's not it. Tintin looked at the other photos on the desk. A shape of a heart was carved roughly on the dead blonde's chest. Blood on that part of his body was drier than the other parts of his body, so Tintin assumed that the murderer made this wound before everything else. He got shivers just by seeing this series of photo. That's when he noticed that there were also similar photos of white and red roses in dead men's mouths, necks strangled by stems and chests carved with the shape of a heart.

"What... was all this?" Tintin asked, finally relocating his vocal chord, recovering from the shock. He reached out his hand, bringing the photos closer to him to get a better look. This was interesting, Tintin thought. Every man killed was quite good looking. And each of them had similar stuff on them - roses in their mouths, rose stems around their necks and a heart on their chests. He could at least know that they were done by the same person.

"Can I take on this story?" Tintin asked.

"That is, if you can solve the mysteries of these serial killings." His editor said, pushing several clippings of newspapers towards Tintin. The journalist took the papers and looked at them. "These were the killings that happened when you're out investigating the _Unicorn_." Tintin went through them, and noticed that the bodies were found in secluded areas such as a private room in the pub, in a dim hotel room, the dark back alley and such.

"They were all handsome men," said Tintin as he picked up more photos, cupping them in between his palms. "And they had the similar killing pattern. It could be from the same person." Just as Tintin was going to deduce more from the gruesome photos, a reporter came into the office without knocking, startling both men inside the office.

"Mr. Yeats! There was another kill today!" The reporter yelled. "Today the body was found inside an abandoned building!"

"What building was it?" Mr. Yeats - the editor - asked.

"The old building site near Old Street Market, boss." the reporter said.

"I'm going," said Tintin as he hushed for the reporter to lead the way to the construction site.

**xXx**

Reporters, cameramen, policemen and nosy passerbys were already crowding around the site. Policemen were already setting up yellow "KEEP OUT" stripes within a few meters radius around the scene. Somehow Tintin managed to sneak beyond the yellow line. He walked towards the smaller crowd in the construction site, where people from the forensic team in the police squad were taking photos and collecting evidences. He wished that he had a camera to take down what he saw.

A man was killed yet again. But this time he had a slightly different kind of death compared to the other victims. He lay still, soaked in a bath tub, the water a shade of red by his own blood. His arms were carved with the letters 'LOVE' and 'DEATH', blood still slowly pouring out from the wounds. His mouth still had the trademark of the murderer - a white and red rose. Pink rose petals floated around the tub, bringing out the contrast of the bloody water against the pure innocent pink of the petals.

Tintin gulped, staring at the dead body of the man. He had slicked black hair, and was wearing a three piece suit. Yet another handsome man. Tintin took a closer look, and saw that there was cash lying below his body.

"What kind of a creepy ritual is this?" Tintin heard somebody said beside him, and when he turned around to face the voice of the person, a camera met his face. He got taken back by the device in his face, and the camera backed away as well. A face appeared from behind the camera.

"Excuse me, I'm trying to take a photo of the crime scene here." A girl said from behind the camera, looking at Tintin and back at her camera. An image of Tintin's face appeared in her camera. She looked at her camera, and a smile carved on her face. "But I think I'll hang on to this."

Tintin looked at the girl in front of him. She was familiar, he noticed. There was something about her...

"You don't happen to live in Labrador Street, do you?" Tintin asked.

"Hmm? Well yes, I do." The girl said, lowering her camera down to look at Tintin. They locked eyes for a moment, taking in each other's features for a long time. Their eyes blinked, blue eyes against hazel eyes. She had almost the same height as him, Tintin noticed. But there was something bigger that he noticed.

"You're... the girl that skated this morning from my apartment?"

"You're... the boy that nearly knocked into me this morning?"

They said simultaneously, and broke into a huge smile when they realize that they were referring to each other. Tintin held out his hand to her.

"I'm Tintin."

"Zoe. Zoe Flynn."

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><p><strong>Ah... So did you guys like my new story?<strong>

**Oh and. _Le Soir _was the name of a real Belgian newspaper. I knew that it had been part of the Tintin series via Wiki, so... I used it.**

**Using the names won't actually get me sued... Will I?**

**But anyway, reviews are much loved!**

**Will appreciate it if it was not from a hater, thank you.**

**(P.s: I really need to stop with my hater issues.)**

**~VelonicaSushi**


	2. Chapter 2

**Thanks to IceCrystal7, ecto1B, Difference-is-normal, Hufflepuff Hex, NightWindAlchemist, cookie2718, Fool on the Hill Far Far Away, Itoe Fujiwara, Roflmao101, AlettaOfIreland, Wildgodess451, onyxcrimson, noukinav018, chibimaker, Roman's Revenge, I got mugged by a penguin, Raven Winter, MystereKitsune, RachelLermanSarahKeynes and Ongiri-chan for adding this story into your favorites!**

**Thanks to IceCrystal7, comedywizard, Hufflepuff Hex, cookie2718, jasono346, Fool on the Hill Far Far Away, Roflmao101, AlettaOfIreland, onyxcrimson, noukinav018, southernxnitemare, Roman's Revenge, chibimaker, Faellena, MystereKitsune, XXDarkXSisterXX and Ongiri-chan for adding this story into your alerts!**

**Review reply to Tintin is awesome: Awwwh. I have to. Haters are already reporting that story... D: Yay I know right! XD**

**Review reply to loverrrgirl102: Thank you! Love you too! XD**

**Review reply to grand old babylon: I know right! I'm gonna make this work this time :)**

**Review reply to derpydash: Ohhh. Okay. :) Sorry that I kinda strayed at that point.**

**Review reply to Tintin is awesome (once again): I will update every Saturday.. I am busy with school stuff and I can only online on weekends... :) But I make sure that I update on Saturdays, don't worry :)**

**Review reply to TinTinFan: I'll update on every Saturday, don't worry :D**

**Review reply to oracle: Not sure if hater or very observant person. But anyway. If you're a hater, please. Get off. But if you're an observant person... Welcome to the story...?**

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><p><strong><em>"Two idiots caught up in a rainstorm."<em>  
><strong>

"Let me guess... You're a reporter hunting for the front page, are you?" Zoe looked at the young man in front of her. He had soft, ginger hair cropped short, a small flip of his hair on the top of his forehead. Brown checkered jacket over a light blue shirt to go along with a pair of dark blue jeans. Zoe thought that Tintin looked quite dashing in those. The lack of a pen and a notebook on his hands made her rethink about her assumption of him being a reporter. He should at least have a recorder to record what he could hear from the interviews later!

"I'm a journalist, not a reporter," Tintin felt the need to teach Zoe the differences between him and the crews outside the yellow stripes. "Journalists uncover mysteries, look for stories, go on journeys. Reporters run around yelling for quotes." Tintin finished the sentence rather lamely on the reporters' part, indirectly expressing that he minded the difference between both occupations. Zoe smiled knowingly at his explanation.

Tintin looked at the camera in Zoe's grasp. It was not an expensive or a professional camera - just an average digital camera. Her outfit - white T-shirt over a grey sleeveless hoodie, going with a pair of raven cargo pants - doesn't gave him the impression that she was working as a photographer for any publishing companies. A freelance photographer, perhaps. But he still had his doubts. And he voiced it out.

"Are you a photographer?" he asked.

"Hmm... Nope." Zoe denied, raising her camera along with her hands as she made motions when she speak. "I take up photographing as a hobby."

"Then what do you do for a living?" Tintin asked.

"That's a secret," Zoe said, ending the conversation between them.

The roars of the engine of a car entered their earshot. The officers who were collecting and taking photos of evidence looked up from their work, glancing beyond Tintin and Zoe, and they quickly sped up their task on hand. Both the journalist and the photographer followed the officers' gaze as well, and judging from the guarding policemen that went forward to raise the stripes, they knew that somebody important was coming.

A pearl white Lamborghini Gallardo came to a halt at an empty space between the crime scene and the crowd. The revving engine stopped abruptly as several higher ranking officers from inside the crime scene rushed out to greet the new incomer, ignoring Tintin and Zoe who didn't belong at the place, in that situation. The door of the sports car was pushed open in a graceful arc, and a pair of high heels was seen before the rest of the body. The person who was descending from the Lamborghini had wore a pair of black suit pants, an equally matching black suit jacket and a white uniform underneath it, the typical work suit in an office. Looking further up the body, the saw the face of a very pretty young woman... if she was not looking incredibly serious right now.

Long, messy auburn hair graced her shoulders, eyes the color of emerald, her nose stood perfectly on her fair skin. She was definitely a beautiful lady. She got down from her car, locking it with a snap of her car keys, and lifted her hand to her ear covered by her hair, looking as if she was touching her ear. Zoe was puzzled with this particular move. Why was somebody like her - confident, high-ranking (Zoe's guess) and gorgeous - needed small moves like that as if she was calming herself down from the news of the murder?

"Status report," the young lady started to speak, her voice clear and loud, delivering the posture of a leader. "It's the _Bloody Mary_ again, is it?" She asked, not even waiting for the officer beside her to finish. While she paced towards the crime scene, the officer nodded, and started to fill her with information regarding this recent murder. "The victim was a man. Carvings on his arms instead of the chests instead. Blood was all over the bath tub where he was laying in, and we'd assumed that..."

As he babbled on, Tintin thought out loud, "_Bloody Mary_? Is that their codename for this murderer?"

"I think so," Zoe answered in a mutter, staring at the lady who had made her way to the both of them, who were still standing just a few steps away from the body.

"Who were they?" The young lady asked in the middle of the male officer's explanation, interrupting him rudely. He seemed to have gotten used to the interrupting before, for he and a few of the nearby officers turned their attention on Tintin and Zoe, finally noticing that they do not belong on the police force. The lady questioned Tintin and Zoe as various expressions which ranged from realization, shock and disbelief dawned on the officers' faces. "Who are you guys? What are you doing here?" The lady had a far guess that the ginger boy must be a reporter and the raven girl is his partner. She had met fearless reporters going to all extends to get exclusive news, so the appearance of Tintin and Zoe did not startle her a lot.

"I..." Just as Tintin was going to introduce himself to the lady, Zoe butted in into his sentence with a loud continuation of her own version of the introduction. "...am a reporter. Yes, this lad here is a reporter." Ignoring the protest or glares that Tintin might throw at her, she quickly continued her introduction. "And I'm his partner slash sidekick. He's Tintin, and I'm Zoe Flynn." She thrust her hand out to the young lady, a wide grin plastered on her face. Zoe hoped that Tintin could get her intentions that she was going to bluff this high-ranking lady so that they could hang around longer in the crime scene. But he couldn't. The journalist looked at Zoe with a confused expression on his face.

_What sidekick? Partners? We had just met! _Tintin rolled these thoughts around and around in his head, his brow creased closer together. Zoe hoped that she could somehow possess Tintin, or at least make a telepathy with him to channel the information that she wanted him to cooperate with her acting, not looking like a lost puppy with his head cocking to a side like that!

Apparently the lady was not into this cute boy stuff. If she was, she would've been charmed by Tintin and they got themselves a free pass around the crime scene. But she continued to glare at Zoe and Tintin, demanding a better answer or an even better explanation. It will be better if they had proof, like their IDs. Zoe licked her suddenly dry lips, and guided her hazel eyes to look at the lady. Her piercing emerald eyes made the photographer dart her eyes away from her. The lady snapped her fingers, the loud snap resonance around the construction site. She was irritated and weary of the both of them. They do not act like usual reporters, that irked her. She hated people who hid something from her. Plus, they looked like they don't even know each other! What were two strangers doing here?

She did _not_ flew halfway over the world from Dubai - on her vacation! - to deal with clowns.

"Take them away," she ordered with a wave from her hand. The guarding staff over at the stripes pulled on their arms, forcefully dragging them to the yellow stripes.

"I can perfectly walk by myself!" came Zoe's protest, trying to shook off the clamp on her arm, but the grip got tighter instead. "I'm sorry, miss. We've heard enough of that to know that if we let go, you're just going to run back to where we'd pulled you away from. I'm gonna have to make sure you stay outside the line." Both policemen raised the stripes, shoving Tintin and Zoe out from the police's working area, before standing still in their position just in front of the stripes, preventing other people from sneaking in under their nose again.

Tintin was caught up in a bigger mix of emotions, and when he was on the other side of the yellow stripe only he started to speak. "Why... Why did you say that?"

"Huh?"

"Partners. Why did you say that we're partners? And I thought that I had made it clear that I am a journalist, not a reporter! Why is it so hard for people to understand and differentiate?"

"Oh, stop the whining. I was just trying to make both of us look legitimate." Zoe explained.

"You're not doing a fine work, then." Tintin retorted, and the both of them rolled their eyes at each other, looking away from each other.

They stood in silence as the chatters from the crowding reporters filled the air around them. Both young man and woman were set on insisting that they were right and an apology is not required.

But somebody had to do something to break this tension between them.

"I just wanted to help," muttered Zoe in a low whisper after a long while, her head still facing away from Tintin. He caught her words in amongst the random noises around them. A small smile tainted his face. There was no use getting mad for an insignificant title. Besides, she could provide him with information regarding the Bloody Mary, if she was resourceful enough.

"If you really wanted to help me," began Tintin, turning his face to look at Zoe. "Then tell me more about the deaths who were suspected to be executed by the _Bloody Mary_." The photographer turned around to look at him as he continued to speak. A relieved look flushed over her face, a smile rising on it as well.

"Come on, then." she said, gesturing towards the general direction of their apartment, just several blocks away from the crime scene. "We'll talk about this over some fine tea, shall we? You don't have any work for the afternoon, right?"

Tintin shook his head, and together the both of them left the crime scene.

**xXx**

Mrs. Finch was cleaning the porch when both Tintin and Zoe appeared on the path along the apartment. They were chatting casually amongst themselves about the weather, the economics, and just as they were talking about Mrs. Finch and her cocoa obsession, they caught sight of the old lady. They smiled politely to their landlady and excused themselves into the apartment. _Kids these days, _Mrs. Finch thought. _All hanging around and no work! What they'd expect? Bundled cash from the skies to fund themselves? I would've drove them off first thing if money were to fell from the heavens!_

Tintin and Zoe slipped into their apartment, and they chuckled to each other after closing the door. "Close enough, huh?" Zoe said, taking in deep breaths and patting the front of her chest. "Good thing Mrs. Finch didn't hear us, or she will start a lecture on how we should respect the elders." Tintin nodded, and together the both of them ascended the flight of stairs to Zoe's apartment.

Her apartment had little furnitures in it. It was just the basics - a square-shaped wooden table that served as the dining table as well as the surface to settle her stacks of newspaper articles and magazines. Three light brown chairs, each settled beside the square table. A mattress lay on the other end of the living room, various books, bottled drinks and packs of snacks surrounding the mattress. The kitchen was at the immediate opposite of the entrance. The door to her dark bedroom stood ajar, the light from her desktop computer and the afternoon sun from the outside illuminating small parts of her bedroom.

"Don't mind all these," Zoe gestured to her living room. "I have a bad habit of leaving things around all the time." A soft mew came from beside her feet. Zoe looked down, and beamed at the sight of her cat. It was a tabby, the black and white on its fur criss-crossing against each other. It was slightly smaller in size than Snowy. "Hey, Shady!" Zoe knelt down to greet her pet, and it licked her palm as a response. "Go play somewhere else, I'm going to start working now... And oh, Tintin is a guest. No scratching!" Shady looked at Tintin, registering his looks before it leaped off to somewhere outside the apartment.

"You're just going to let it wander like that?" Tintin asked when he saw Shady trotting down the stairs. "I mean, what if he got lost?"

"Shady won't," Zoe was in the kitchen now, brewing tea for the both of them. The fragrance of the tea rifted around the apartment. "He is an intelligent cat, don't worry. He'll be back when he's starving. Go on, make yourself at home. Take a seat." Tintin shut the front door behind him, and picked the chair with the most comfortable-looking cushions to lean on, sitting down on it as he waited for Zoe to come out from the kitchen. She resurfaced from the kitchen several moments later, Tintin had already whisking through the stack of newspaper cut outs on her table. "Tea's served!" she sang, and settled the jug of tea on a hard-covered magazine, handing Tintin a white ceramic tea cup. "Self service, if you please." Tintin reached for the jug and poured himself some tea while Zoe looked at the cut outs that he was previously looking at.

"Getting a head start now, are you?" she asked, but continued before Tintin could say anything more. "As you probably already know, those were news regarding the killings of _Bloody Mary _from different newspapers." Tintin had already finished pouring his tea, and he handed the jug over to Zoe. "Thank you. Now, from what I had gained by comparing all the versions of the news..." she stopped to put the jug back on the magazine. "The police had been limiting the media on the details of the killings starting from the third case. Either that, or the murderer had taken a less violent approach. Chances that the second possibility is the truth is almost impossible. I think the authorities doesn't want to spread fear."

"How many of them were killed by _Bloody Mary_?" Tintin asked.

"Just in case that you've been living under a rock until now, _Bloody Mary _had already wiped off 11 people." Zoe said, and Tintin had the urge to tell her that he was on an epic adventure for the hunt of Sir Francis's treasure just a few days before with Captain Haddock. Not knowing what was happening in town was just normal. But the storytelling would have to wait. "And this 12th victim, the one that we had saw earlier, I swear he looked incredibly familiar..." Zoe flipped over newspaper after newspaper, and she finally found the copy that she was looking for. "Aha! There you are!" She exclaimed, and asked for Tintin to come over and have a look at it.

_**"MULTI-MILLIONAIRE GETS MARRIED!"**_

**_"A modern romantic encounter between the rich prince - Nate Sawyer - and the poor damsel-in-distress - Dorothy Criss - leads to the promise of a lifetime and to the most anticipated marriages for the year!"_**

"Look," Zoe prodded at Nate's photo on the paper. It was the exact same person that they had saw earlier, with the slicked black hair and handsome features. "This was last month's news. They got married a week ago, and now he's dead. Who had the biggest possibility of being the murderer here?"

"Dorothy Criss." Tintin pointed at the blonde woman in the paper. She looked beautiful and sexy, and it's quite hard to believe that she was from a needy background. "She is, if we're looking at this case alone. There were still the murders of the other 11 people!"

"An organization, perhaps. The killers," Zoe suggested. "Either that, or the rest of the murderers were just following the killing style of the first murderer, and Dorothy had just altered the format."

"How did you know?" Tintin asked.

"Imagination, Tintin." Zoe said, tapping the side of her forehead with her index finger. "Sometimes you just have to think crazy like they do to understand them."

"If they were an organization, then what are their purpose of killing all these men?" Tintin continued inquiring.

"How should I know?" Zoe retorted back almost a bit too quickly, and shrugged her shoulders after that. "How about paying Dorothy a visit? We could ask her some really _simple _questions."

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><p><strong>OH MY GOD I'M SORRY FOR THE LATE SATURDAY UPDATE!<strong>

**And thanks for reviewing and adding my story into your favorites and alerts! I was happy to see that you guys liked this story. :)**

**To the haters, or to the ones who wanted to remind me of my previous story, please. Go somewhere else. Now this is a new story and I don't want to see you guys around here flaming and telling me that I should never write anymore. Too bad but I love writing (although it's incredibly bad) and I will never stop.**

**Take your time to enjoy and savour this over the week, everyone!**

**P.s: The cliffhanger is sort of not a cliffhanger, but yeah... *draws circle in corner***

**P.P.s: These were wrote when I was in class, on my school bus on my way back home, but never in my house. I wonder why... Probably it's because I was busy with house chores and homework and two of my brothers. But anyway, it seemed that I have ranted a lot.**

**Ciao~!**

**THE NEXT UPDATE WILL BE ON 21 JAN. **

**~Velonica Sushi**


	3. Chapter 3

**Thanks to Faellena, Storygirl95, comedywizard, The Babyfaced Assassin, XXDarkXSisterXX and IzouRin for adding this story into your favorites!**

**Thanks to Itoe Fujiwara, Storygirl95, Lily Mapleberry, The Babyfaced Assassin, TheGreatWritter and FoxGoddess2416 for adding this story into your alerts!**

**Review reply to Sunshine Muse: Awwwh! Thank you! :D Nah, you don't wanna hear about it.. It was a long tragedy story with no ending.**

**Review reply to Tintin is awesome: Whoo~! Thank you! XD Your review made me high too, seriously :D**

**Review reply to A Silent Thought: Yeah! Haters to the left!**

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><p><strong><em>"Eggs and Spiders on the Wall."<em>**

Mr. Sawyer's residence had never been so crowded before. The evening news had reported the death of the millionaire, therefore various magazines and newspaper companies had sent reporters to the huge mansion to rope for more background stories about Nate Sawyer. Tintin and Zoe were not the first ones to arrive - although they had stopped for dinner on their two-hour journey via various transportations and the sun had already set - but they were not the last ones to reach the mansion, either. Torches were flashing around at the front door, waiting for the current residents of the mansion – Nate Sawyer's family and their new member, Dorothy Criss – to give them their point of view on Nate's death.

"Now this is unexpected," muttered Tintin as he looked at the reporters standing by at the Sawyer mansion's front gate. He could've never imagined that they were so dedicated to their job. Well, a bit too dedicated. This changed their impression in Tintin's mind, but he's not going to make that clear to anyone.

"Pretty… crazy, isn't it?" Zoe could think of more extensive descriptions for the reporters, but she decided that she would settle for 'crazy' at that moment.

Snowy woofed at Tintin's feet, and he knelt down to scratch behind his ears. His eyes were locked on the swarm of reporters. "How are we going to get in, Snowy?" Tintin asked, Snowy giving a contended purr as an answer.

"We sneak in," Zoe answered Tintin's thoughts, one hand resting on her hip, another patting her cat, Shady, who had settled itself on her shoulder. "Like cats. Lead the way, Shady." The black-and-white striped feline leaped off her shoulder, landing on the ground without a loud thud. Snowy growled at Shady, but Tintin held him back, repeatedly telling him that Shady is not the cat that he should chase. Shady, who had been growling back at Snowy stopped baring his teeth at the canine when the terrier stopped doing so. Snowy still eyed Shady suspiciously, as if if he could talk, he would say, "I'm still aware of your offensive presence, cat." Shady tore his gaze away from Snowy, starting to look around the area. His eyes darted from the main gate to the reporters, before settling his eyes at the left part of the huge wall surrounding the mansion. He started to run towards the wall, Zoe following the cat in a jog. "Come, Tintin! He found a way in!" Zoe dug out a flashlight from her sling bag, shining it on Shady as she ran. It was quite hard to follow Shady in the dark. Tintin and Snowy broke into a run as well, following the light from Zoe's hands.

The chattering voices from the reporters subsided as they ran, the sound of the chilly wind hushed against their ears. Shady stopped at a part of the wall which overlooked several windows of the mansion's rooms. The room at the third floor of the Sawyer's mansion which was facing the wall they had stopped at had the lights on, a faint orange glow illuminating the room. The other rooms had their lights turned off. Zoe walked forward, knocking lightly at the wall with her knuckle. The hollow echo that she received seemed to satisfy her. Tintin was confused with her moves. "What are you doing?" he asked. Snowy paced towards the wall and sniffed it out of curiosity.

"What you're about to see is highly confidential," announced Zoe in a mysterious tone. "This leaks out to anyone, you're a dead man." Tintin wanted to tell her that she was overreacting, but the look in her eyes told him to stop that thought from coming out his mouth, intentionally or not. He nodded as an answer instead.

"Good." Zoe said, and opened the zip on her bag, pulling out a huge red tarantula. Tintin leaped back a few steps, raising his hands in front of him as his defense. "Whoa, whoa, whoa. Is that a very huge spider or am I seeing things?" The spider wiggled its legs a little, and that was enough to send Tintin backing away a few steps further from Zoe. "This is what I dubbed '_Madam Octa_'." she paused to look at Tintin's pale face. A grin surfaced on hers. "Don't tell me you have arachnophobia." Tintin's face looked paler when Zoe handed out _Madam Octa_ to the journalist. She held back her laughter, but a few sniggers still managed to get away from her.

Zoe eased her shuddering shoulders before she continued explaining, "It's just a gadget, don't worry!" She returned_ Madam Octa_ back to her side. "Watch." Zoe commanded, and threw the huge spider as high as possible up the wall. A few bricks cracked as it landed on the wall, the eight legs locking themselves in the concrete. Zoe took out a cobweb-shaped metal with a mini receptor and a small handle in the centre of the web, raising it at the spider stuck on the wall. A wire shot out from _Madam Octa_'s body, attaching onto the receptor of the cobweb. Shady leapt up onto Zoe's shoulder. "I'll get up first, and hand down a ladder for you, okay?" Zoe said, and started to climb up the wall. Tintin noticed that she was spinning the handle with her thumb as she climbed, the wires curling back into _Madam Octa _as she did so, pulling her up the wall where the spider was. Zoe took out the spider from the wall, quickly replacing it with the cobweb she had used to climb earlier to steady herself, before throwing her gadget up once again. This time it landed on the top of the wall, its wire still attached to the metal cobweb. Zoe pulled the cobweb out from the hole, and continued to climb up the wall. Tintin looked at Zoe with awe. Looked at the gadget. Looked at both of them. She looked like she had done this lots of times before.

To him, she was amazing.

She sat on the wall, balancing her weight on the high wall before detaching the spider from the wall. She stuffed the gadget back into her bag, and took out a tube the size of half her arm which is strapped slantly at the back of her bag. Zoe opened the body of the tube, shaking it down the wall. A rope ladder rolled out from the tube, reaching the ground where Snowy had stood. "I designed it to have a maximum length of 100 meter, and added a sensor to measure the height just a few months ago. Cool, huh?" She grinned smugly to herself before waved to Tintin. "Come on! It's sturdy!" Zoe rammed two hooks from the tube into the wall beneath her, further destroying the wall with her gadgets. Tintin eyed the swaying ladder as Snowy settled down his paws on his shoulder. Then they started to mount up the ladder.

Meanwhile, Zoe turned her body so that she was facing the mansion, and looked down at the garden beneath her. A fish pond was to her left, a hexagonal pavilion to her right, a stone padded path connecting both of them. Zoe was tempted to land on the garden with the rope ladder, but she thought it was impossible to make such an easy break-in for such a mansion. There must be some sort of security...

And then she found it. One of her arch-enemies, Infrared motion sensors. She glared at the small sensors in the grass, a single red visible light giving them away amongst the grass. Tintin had already got up the ladder by the time she was busy eyeing the sensors. "What now?" he asked, carefully balancing his body on the wall, feeling like Humpty Dumpty. Now he knew why he fell off the wall. It was nearly impossible to stay still on it!

She turned around to pull away the ladder tube from the wall. A press on a red button on the tube sent the ladder rolling up the wall back into the tube. While the ladder was retracting back into the tube, Tintin started a conversation between them.

"How... How did you get these stuff?" he asked. Gadgets like that can only be seen in movies or in the hands of the government's secret service or spy organizations. She was just an average woman! But then, she didn't really talk much about her background, does she? So there is a possibility that she is a...

"You're a secret agent, are you?" concluded Tintin, lowering his voice as he inquired. "That's why you made me swore that I will not tell anyone about your gadgets!" It all seemed clear to the journalist now. Zoe must have been some agent sent from the government to bring this murderer into custody! He had never met with an agent before, and this is going to be an eye-opener! Excitement brewed through Tintin while Zoe sat quietly for the ladder to roll up. Her thumb drummed impatiently on the tube. She took a gulp.

"I'm not," said Zoe. Tintin looked at her in confusion. "What do you mean?" he asked.

"I'm not a secret agent, Tintin. I'm not sure where did you got this thought, but..." Zoe explained, nearly stuttering at the speed of her own words.

"You just have to think crazy, right?" Tintin tapped the side of his head, smiling at Zoe, ignoring her previous statement. "Come on. I know that your identity must be kept a secret, but right now, it's just you and me. Your secrets are safe with me." He couldn't hide the eager in his voice. It's not common to meet an agent everyday.

"Why should I trust you?" She asked, her hazel eyes glaring at Tintin in the dark. A sigh then escaped her lips. "Why did I even bring you here? This is not even the place you should be in. I must be crazy." The ladder had finished rolling into the tube, and she strapped it to the back of her bag. Tintin looked at her with disbelief.

"Great, now you're implying that I'm dragging you behind?" Tintin questioned, anger bubbling inside him. "I am not slowing you down. And apparently you're not supposed to be here, either! This is an illegal break-in!" Tintin shouted while Zoe rummaged through her bag. She stopped when she realized that he was retorting in a voice that will soon attract attention to both of them. "Call the police, then. Send me to jail. I'm wanted by the Secret Service anyway. But if you do, do it quietly. People are trying to do something dangerous here." She rolled her eyes at Tintin and located her hand on a gadget she was looking for. Taking it out, it was a palm-shaped board with 5 suction cups, each with the colors white, blue, yellow, purple and neon pink on every fingertip. A hoop was embedded on the centre of the palm, one green button and a red one was on each side of the hook.

"You're wanted by the secret service? Why?" Tintin was shocked. Being wanted by the police is a thing. Being wanted by the Secret Service meant another. Either if Zoe's a really evil criminal on loose... He didn't have any more explanations. But if she was, the police - to be specific, the female high ranking officer earlier in the morning - should be taking action the moment they saw her at the crime scene earlier! What was...

"No, I'm not a criminal," Zoe said, surveying the mansion opposite their location. She saw that the first floor's roof lay just beneath the second floor room's window. That could be a perfect landing spot. She took another look at the wall beside the white-framed window. "They just want me on their team, that's all."

"And why is that?" Tintin asked. This woman is proving to be a mystery to him. Well, all women are.

"My father had a history with the Service." Zoe explained, taking out a cone from her bag, thrusting it into the wall beneath her legs. Poor wall. "He was the inventor of the team. But he got killed by the enemy years ago. Service paid us my father's salary every month as compensation, but in exchange, they want all the blueprints of my father's inventions."

Tintin sat and listened to her as she told him her story. Snowy and Shady sat on the wall with great balance, glaring at each other. Zoe was still fumbling with her equipment. Whirring sounds can be heard coming from the board as she activated it.

"My mother refused. And they hunted all of us down. We were branded as terrorists who were assisting the enemies that killed my father! We had never left their radar for months, until my older brother did something revolutionary." Zoe said, taking out two pair of handcuffs, handing one of them to Tintin, who inhaled sharply when his fingers made contact with the cold metal. "He burned down our father's lab and got sent into jail. Things went down a bit from there, but Mother was still devastated that my brother got sent into jail. Since then, me and Mother had been moving around separately around the world, only contacting each other via email. Our labels were taken down - the Service had no use of two useless woman."

"All is well until I had accidentally dropped my stack of document in front of a security camera. In between the documents contained my father's blueprints." Zoe looked at Tintin, whose eyes widened in surprise. "Yes, yes, I stole them when I was a kid. These were the unimportant ones - the ones that my father had already invented. I was just trying to recreate them, and to have a fair idea of inventing things by myself. I guess it runs in the family. Not much long later, Service found me. I gave them the prints. They leave me alone. But since the _Bloody Mary _case had started, they were thinking that the same enemy that killed my father was back on a killing spree, and they were requesting for me to join them. I refused." Zoe finished, and waited for Tintin to digest all of the information.

"Why did you decline them? Isn't it quite an honor to work with the Secret Service?" Tintin asked, fiddling with the handcuff with his fingers.

"It is not. My dad was laden with busy whenever he comes home, and I don't want to end up like him, whose life was always work, work and work. But I still invent things, and that's the single reason they were active on my tail."

"Stop inventing, then. If you find Service annoying." Tintin suggested.

"I can't. Creating something from nothing... The feeling is just pure bliss. I couldn't give up on something that I like." Zoe said, chuckling lightly to herself. "I'm stupid, am I?" Tintin shook his head beside her, but she was too absorbed in staring at the handcuff to notice anything. She bobbed her head back up again, determination replacing the momentarily sadness in her eyes. "Come on! We have a mansion to infiltrate and a woman to interrogate!"

Zoe shot the board towards the wall at the right side of the second floor's window, circling her finger on the hoop of the board. It flew downwards and was stuck onto the wall without any sound, unlike _Madam Octa _earlier, who made a small crate on where it landed. The hoop was still in her hand, and a long metal wire was in between the hoop and the board. Zoe locked the hoop into one of the many hooks embedded on the cone. "I call this the multi-purposed Ice-cream Cone. See the hooks?" Zoe gestured at the Cone, and Tintin just nodded, unable to compose a reply to her statement. The hooks were in different shapes and sizes, and it's quite a sore for the eye. But it's practicality was preferred in situations like this.

"I'll go, and you stand by here." Zoe commanded, and Tintin stared at her, his eyes sending a message of what seemed like annoyance.

"What, scared I'm going to drag you down?" Tintin asked.

"Unfortunately, yes." Zoe said, winking at him before holding each hoop of the handcuff in both her hands separately, clamping the middle section of the cuff that connected both hoops together on the wire, and with a kick served as a push, she slid down the wire, the handcuff grinding against the wire as she did so. She reached the mansion in seconds, landing gracefully on the roof of the first floor.

"Bastard." Tintin muttered, but a smile escaped his lips. Now that he had knew some of her past, she didn't seemed scary at all. But he made a mental note to himself to not cross the borders too soon. Who knows she might turn him into a humanoid if he did so.

Zoe landed on the roof, carefully shifting her weight on it to not alert anyone. She looked up at the third room. Fishing around in her bag, she produced a pair of gloves. "Ah... _Gecko Gloves. _We meet again, old friend." While she was putting it on, she added. "Screw this, you were always in my bag, we meet everyday." Talking to herself is always amusing for her. It keeps her from feeling nervous. The _Gecko Gloves _was one of her newer inventions, and this is the... 16th time she tried it out. Anything less than a solid 50 experiments does not qualify as a stable invention. They could only be labelled as prototypes that way. When she had finished putting on her gloves, she gently pasted her right palm on the wall, and it glued to the wall. Raising her left hand higher than the right, the glove stuck onto the wall just like the first. Peeling the right glove off the wall by arching her palm, she repeated this climbing routine until she reached the third floor.

Looking into the room through the thick curtains that had shadowed the room, she saw a figure sitting by a computer table across the room. The figure had his or her back against Zoe. _Perfect, _Zoe mused, as she realized that she could also saw the computer screen from where she was hanging on. The figure had long, blonde hair, wet from the bath she had taken earlier, as proved by the towel around her neck. "Dorothy!" she hissed. But that was not what she came here for. She needed to confirm something. Her eyes darted to the computer screen, and the whole screen was blood red. She was typing something. She was shifting alternatively between the keyboard, the screen and the computer table beside her. Just as Zoe was going to see more of Dorothy's suspicious moves, the left glove of her _Gecko Glove _hissed angrily, and it shut down abruptly, losing grip of the wall.

Zoe bit down her lip along with her intended shriek as she lost her balance, dangling solely on the right _Gecko Glove_ three floors high from the ground. "I'm in deep crap," Zoe managed to humor herself as she tried to think of a way to get off this height without alerting anyone and die a painful death.

Tintin, who had been quietly watching Zoe the moment she started climbing, got really panicked when Zoe's glove stopped functioning properly. "Zoe!" he said, managing to control his yell. _I have to do something._ Tintin looked around, but he didn't have sling bags with incredible gadgets. He looked around nervously, but the only thing he got is the pair of handcuffs. Snowy and Shady too. They looked up at Tintin, as if asking for him to think of a way to save Zoe. "Okay, fine, fine!" Tintin dug out the idea that had been buried beneath him earlier on. The timing must be good, and luck is always not on Tintin's side.

He was going to catch her.

"Let go!" Tintin risked a shout over to Zoe. The inventor turned around and looked at Tintin, confusion splattered over her face. "What?" she mouthed.

"I'll catch you!" Tintin said, and the words hung over in the air as Zoe looked at Tintin incredulously. "Seriously?" she mouthed back. Tintin nodded.

"Don't you always want to take a leap of faith?" Zoe said to herself, and slowly arched her palm as Tintin started to clamp the cuff on the wire.

Tintin slid towards Zoe as the inventor released her grip on the wall. Time froze. It was all on the Goddess of Fate now.

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><p><strong>Used:<strong>

**-The Saga of Darren Shan: Cirque Du Freak****  
>-Mission: Impossible 4: Ghost Protocol<br>-Inception**

**references in this chapter. Anybody who managed to guess all parts which I had used will get... an extra Tintin/Zoe Valentines Special chapter to his/her account during Feb 18~! (The week of Valentine's Day, since I'm busy during weekdays) They will be a couple in the story, and crossovers with the mentioned references will arise! Give your best and read the Darren Shan Saga plus watch the three movies if you haven't already! XD**

**Just something interactive I thought I'd add in this story. :D**

**Of course, an official Valentines Special chapter _may_ be added, but that's... going to depend on which part of the plot that I've reached. Mark the 'MAY'. XD**

**THE NEXT UPDATE WILL BE ON 28TH JAN.**

**~Velonica Sushi**


	4. Chapter 4

**Thanks to tupaiterbang for adding this story into your favorites!**

**Thanks to tupaiterbang, Fanofallthings, musicismyhero and ecto1B for adding this story into your alerts!**

**Review reply to Fool On The Hill: Hiya, Erik~! Thanks for the wish! And I think you could give me a Valentines Day present, yes? :D**

**Review reply to Ace Reader: Thank you! Glad you liked both stories :) Awww. Her flaws will be revealed! I've thought of that :D**

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><p><strong><em>"Jumping, Catching, Cackling and Shattering."<em>**

The sense that you're going to fail when you're trying something dangerous? That's what Tintin was going through right now. Bold determination had helped him decide, and now it seemed to him that he was acting perhaps a bit too rash. The wire rubbed against the metal wire, sharp hissing sounds sliced in the air. Tintin reached the other side of the wire, landing on the roof and quickly releasing his grip on the cuff - he needed his arms to catch Zoe. But before he could look up and pinpoint Zoe's location, said inventor came tumbling down on the inventor, their bodies crashing against each other as they began to slid off the roof...!

"Hang on!" Tintin yelled, and grabbed the cuff which is still attached to the wire in one hand, another grabbing hold of Zoe's hand. The wire arched down, carrying the burden of two people. Zoe hold on on Tintin's hand as she looked at the ground beneath her. They were still at quite a distance from the grass patch, and their fall would certainly seek attention from the tenants of the mansion. They needed to get lower to the ground or higher back to the roof. In a situation like this, the reasonable thing to do was get down.

"Are you okay?" came Tintin's question when they had stopped dangling in the air. Zoe looked up at the young man, and smiled at him. Seeing things - in this case, people - from different angles was proved interesting, after all. "Judging from the weird smile, I'm assuming that you're okay." Tintin said, determined to stare back at the woman, but moments later he found himself looking away from her face. Tintin only looked back at Zoe when he got no response. "What's our next step, inventor?" Tintin asked, and it got Zoe's attention back. She looked back at the wall where they had came in from, and realized that something was going wrong.

"The wire can't hold on much longer," Zoe announced.

"What?" Tintin asked incredulously. He couldn't believe his ears. He had rather Zoe's words had somehow distorted in the wind. "Are you telling me that..."

"Yes, it's going to break and we'll fall," Zoe concluded, and took a glance at the Cone. It was slowly prying out from it's spot in the wall at a dangerous rate. Then she saw Shady and Snowy, still perching on the wall, uncertain of what to do at their owner's fall. "But we'll take chances." She whistled at the wall, and Shady caught it. The cat looked at Zoe, his body tensed as he waited for her instructions. Zoe used her free hand to point at the Cone, and Shady managed to grab it with his mouth before it was fully pulled out by Tintin and Zoe's weight.

Of course, Tintin and Zoe's weight proved to be too much for just a cat's strength. Shady found himself slipping away slowly from the wall as well. Right before his back legs lost contact with the rough surface of the wall, something sharp was digging into the nape of his neck. He winced at the pain, but it quickly subsided as the teeth holding on to him was not sharp enough to penetrate his whole neck. Shady didn't even need to guess who was holding him up. It's not like there was a lot of animals on the wall.

"Nice catch, Snowy!" came the owner of the dog who had saved Shady from suffering a nasty fall. The terrier wanted to woof as a reply, but he was holding Shady in his mouth, hence he stopped himself from barking out. Although both Snowy and Shady had grabbed hold of the Cone, the combined weight of the duo on the other side of the wire was still too much for the pair of them. There was only one reasonable thing to do, Snowy thought. He lowered Shady as low as he could, bringing Zoe closer to the grass patch as well. If he couldn't hold them in the air, then he would lower them down to the ground instead.

By the time Zoe can feel her legs touching the tip of the grass, Snowy and Shady were already hanging on the wall at a dangerous angle, threatening to fall off if either Zoe or Tintin didn't let go soon. Still, Zoe was wary of the grass. The motion sensors were still turned on, and she wouldn't want to take any chances on the grass. The stone path seemed convincing, but it was impossible to get over there without landing.

"Get down, Zoe!" Tintin urged. "You're close enough to the ground! Snowy and Shady couldn't hold on much longer!"

"There are motion sensors!" Zoe yelled back, unaware that her voice had already caught the attention of people inside the mansion. "If I land on it, I'll trigger the alarm!"

"Why don't you tell us sooner?" Tintin asked.

"I forgot, okay! Not everybody is as perfect as you!" Zoe retorted, and Tintin was not sure if that was a compliment or a mockery.

Just as the both of them were making this conversation, Snowy fought back the urge to let go of Shady. _Let them go,_ he thought. _They were taking too much time down there. You cannot hold on much longer, you know that._ But something ticked in his mind. Is he really going to let go of this cat? Shady was the first friend Snowy had made in years. Well, Snowy couldn't exactly call Shady a 'friend' - the hate between cats and dogs is always mutual - , but he felt that they were going to stick together for a while, so he might as well... Snowy hated admitting that, but he might have to get on better terms with Shady.

While Snowy was thinking that over his head, his back legs which gripped on the wall loosened, and both Snowy and Shady fell face first onto the... control socket of the motion sensors. The pair of animals crashed into the control socket - which is a small, black box embedded onto the wall -, disabling all of the motion sensors on the grass patches before Zoe landed on it, Tintin crushing on top of the inventor.

"Get off me, get off me, get off me." Zoe repeated, pushing Tintin's body away from her as she rolled out from beneath him. Tintin was pushed onto his stomach, and he inhaled a bit of the smell of grass.

"Ugh, sorry for crushing your bones." Tintin said as he got to his knees before standing up fully, extending a hand to Zoe. "Come on, our fall must have alerted Sawyer's family." Zoe took his hand and stood up while Shady and Snowy ran towards them, the Cone still in Shady's mouth. Zoe took the Cone from Shady, and patted on the cat's head as she looked at the kitchen - which faced the garden they had landed on - and the shadows that were gathering outside the kitchen.

"You're right, Tintin. They're getting ready to bust in into the kitchen," she could make out the outlines of at least 5 people leaning on the semi-transparent door of the kitchen. "Distraction!" Zoe sang out, and threw the Cone into the second floor's window, crashing the glass and startling the people leaning on the kitchen door. They left the kitchen door and ran upstairs to check out what had happened. Tintin and Zoe used this chance to sneak around the house, dashing towards the front gate, which was still crowded by reporters. They didn't have any plan in their heads, and was using their instinct to make their way to the most obvious exit. They kept close to the shadows of the wall, reaching the edge of the electronic front gate. Zoe took out yet another gadget in her bag. This time it was a small button-shaped item.

"This is my favorite invention. I have tons of them. I'll explain the functions to you later." Zoe said as she attached the gadget onto the front gate. The sounds of locks unlocking themselves are heard, and the gate was unlocked, just like that. Reporters burst into Sawyer's mansion, and guards from inside the mansion rushed out to bring them to a halt. Tintin and Zoe managed to sneak away in between the chaos along with Snowy and Shady, and caught a train back to their apartment before anything else could go wrong.

**xXx**

"There were holes on the wall outside the mansion facing the second floor's window. We believe the intruder had somehow managed to climb into the mansion using... certain objects."

"Mind explaining?"

"Well, um..."

"Grappler hooks can't be this strong to penetrate walls! It must be something else!"

"But, madam. We've been on this case for a few weeks, and this is something new. We need time to..."

"Now you're complaining, huh? Stop giving excuses and get to work!"

The woman from the crime scene earlier with the auburn hair watched as her inferior scrambled away with his report. Well, she didn't meant to leash her temper on her colleague, but the anxiety bubbling inside her had to be released somehow. They were at Sawyer's mansion, examining the damage dealt by the intruder. Except for the crashed motion sensor box, windows and walls, there seemed to be nothing of importance. But why would somebody break into a person's house without taking or doing anything? _Are they leading me on a wild goose chase?_ The woman thought, and gritted her teeth at that thought. She can tolerate anything, but not people making fun of her, directly or indirectly.

She looked at the glass shards beneath her shoe. Picking one up, she felt satisfied when she heard the piece of glass shatter against the nearest wall. Picking another one in her hands, she hurled it toward the wall, creating more shattering sounds, and the edge of her lip curled into a smile.

_One more glass. One more shatter._

Several of her colleagues had stopped their work on hand, looking at their superior with eyes that spelled fear and confusion. Confused of her actions, and fear of her sudden insanity. The others went on with their work as if nothing had happened, but they had made note to themselves to not go anywhere near her.

"You bastard. You bastard. You bastard!"

She yelled to no one in particular, and was on the verge of changing her target from the wall to the other things in the room, before a pair of hands covered on hers from behind her. She turned around, and was greeted by the smell of sea before the sight of the last man she'd hoped to see.

"You really can't manage yourself without me, do you?" The man had blonde, messy short hair. He was wearing a pair of jeans and a white short sleeved T-shirt, showing off his well-trained muscles on his arms. He was smiling while the woman glared at him. "My darling Silence."

"Don't call me Silence, Royce." The woman hissed at him. "It's my code name for those on the police force, not for you. You will address me by 'Madam'."

"N~ope! You never told me your real name, so why should I?" The blonde - Royce - said, and returned his attention back to their hands. "Look, you're bleeding." The woman - Silence - looked at her hand, only realizing that she had hurt her hand when she picked up the glass shards earlier. The sharp edges of the glass had carved into her hand, leaving her hand wounded. Her face turned pale for a moment, before she regained her stance and scoffed at him.

"I've seen worst things. This is nothing." Silence said, and curled her fingers to the centre of her palm, but she winced when a particular wound stung at her fingertip.

"It's okay, I know how to treat a wound," Royce let go of her hand, making his way to the police's medical team to request for a first-aid kit. Silence cursed herself for her wince, and decided that she should get some treatment done if she was to continue her investigation. The blonde returned, and signalled for her to make herself comfortable on a chair before he pulled another one, sitting next to her. He took her palm in his, and began to wash the wounds with antiseptic. The cold feel of the medicine on her skin calmed her down, but the searing pain of the ointment on her skin a while later made Silence yelled at Royce. "Hurts!"

"Can't help it when you're a princess, can I?" Royce retorted, flashing Silence a grin. He took out clean cloths and started to wrap her injured fingers. They didn't say anything else after that, and Silence muttered a thanks to the young man when he's finished.

"My pleasure," returned Royce as he passed the first-aid kit to a nearby officer, asking him to return the kit back to the medical team. "So... What seems to be the problem that you have to enter maniac mode?" Royce asked, and received yet another glare from Silence.

"It is _not _maniac mode. It's just my way of letting out my frustration. I have the weirdest ways, so don't judge." Silence answered. "Regarding the question that you mentioned..." she took up the Cone, throwing it up and down her hand before sending it flying towards Royce, who caught it before the sharp tip could penetrate his face. "I want to know what this was doing in this room."

The new police officers who were staring in shock earlier finally regained their posture. Turning towards the ones who had worked under Silence, "Is Madam Silence always randomly throwing things like that?" was their first question. The senior officers shook their heads.

"She did worst stuff. All of them seemed to involve her getting hurt or into danger. Once, she tried to hang herself, saying she was trying to _experience the final moments of the victim._" The officer who had reported to Silence earlier said. Junior officers gaped in shock. "But that guy came and saved her before we could." He pointed at the blonde, who had began to climb out of the broken window to examine the palm-shaped board on the wall, which the team had no idea of detaching it, with Silence looking at him from inside the room.

"But surely he couldn't save her every single time?" one of the young officers questioned.

"He can." Looking at the woman hollering to the man outside the wall at something he said, the experienced officer added. "Every single time."

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><p><strong>Snowy and Shady seemed human-ish in this chapter.<strong>

**Shady is a male cat, guys. Just saying, in case you're wondering why I'm using the prefix "he" when I'm portraying him.**

**And this chapter is a wee bit shorter than the others (This is around 2000 words while the previous one sported 3000) but I hoped you guys enjoyed it as well!**

**I have to work on the back story between Royce and Silence. :D**

**Some hilarious stuff I found relating to Tintin : http: / / www. zerochan. net / 886838 (remove the spaces in between)**

**THE NEXT UPDATE WILL BE ON 4 FEB!**

**~Velonica Sushi**


	5. Chapter 5

**Thanks to ruela17 and Lord Horatio Augusta for adding this story into your favorites!**

**Thanks to mizzBlackBerry for adding this into your alerts!**

**Review reply to ErikMagneto: Erik! :D I shall sit here patiently and wait for your present. :) Thank you for the praise! :D Hmm.. I'll add some romance in this chapter? :)**

**Review reply to Ace Reader: Thank you! :D**

**Review reply to Tintin is awesome: It's okay :D Thanks for dropping by XD**

**Enjoy!**

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><p><em><strong>"Amigos with Assassins."<strong>_

She was on her first field mission with the Interpol. Graduated from the military with flying colors, she was given the privilege to join a team to hunt down a single criminal hacker and retrieve his hacking logs. She was never in the way of her seniors, but she was never much help either. That is, until the team decided to abandon her.

The team were in a abandoned building, the hacking logs in hand, but she was at the other side of the room, as the hacker's hostage. She had been careless, and now a gun was on the left side of her forehead, threatening to blast through her skull if her team didn't return the log to them.

"Go," she said.

"Leave me alone," she said.

"I'm not worth it," she said.

"I will destroy the purpose we're here," she said.

"I'm sorry, dear comrade. We will forever appreciate your help." they said, and turned their back against her, disappearing form sight just .

"I will not allow it," he said.

What happens next was something that changed her life.

A blonde man was standing just behind the hacker, a gun pointing to the back of the hacker's head. The blonde grinned as cold sweat formed on the hacker's body.

"Ryan? What... What is the meaning of this?" The hacker stammered. The blonde behind the thick-glassed man smiled.

"Why, of course it's a _mutiny_," slurred the blonde with the accent of a sea pirate as he pulled on the hammer of the gun with a click. "And the name's not Ryan." With a pull of the trigger, blood spurted out from the hacker's brain, staining the blonde's face while the bullet came off at his forehead, landing on the ground just in front of the young woman, blood hissing from the sizzling heat of the bullet. She shrieked as the loud bang of the bullet was fired, and immediately buckled on her knees as the bullet came to a stop ahead of her. The blonde grabbed a suitcase from the array of computer screens, keyboards and monitors set up behind him and rushed over to her side, grabbing her by the arm, roughly pulling her up on her feet.

"Come on, now. A bomb's gonna explode in 7 minutes." The killer said in a sing-song tone as he rushed her up to a flight of stairs. She was stunned and too caught up in the string of events to reach properly, letting herself being led by the male. Her hand was still cold from the shock, and he squeezed her hand in his.

"It's okay. Everything's gonna be alright."

Not very convincing with the blood on his face.

They reached the rooftop in a while, a helicopter parked on the wide space above the building. He checked his watch as they made their way toward the aircraft. "4 minutes!" he yelled, and swung open the door to push her into the helicopter before letting himself in. The male began to fumble with the controls, sending the red lights green, green lights red, yellow lights dancing as the engine whirred into life.

"Wh... Why are you doing this?" The female beside the young man asked, and he ignored her question with a statement of his own. "Pilots don't appreciate noisy passengers," he grumbled, and she stayed quiet until the helicopter took off, the building bursting into flames a few moments later. She looked back to the building, and flames can be seen licking and grazing the abandoned architecture. She turned back around, and the male started to speak before she could raise questions of her own.

"You need the logs, I need the man dead. I'm just doing us a favor," he said. "And one does not simply get my name, miss." he added when he saw her mouth stretching open yet again.

"But why are you killing him? I mean, is his death really necessary?" she asked, eyeing the case on his lap. "What's that doing there?"

"I am a hired assassin." he said, and she tensed up in her seat, reaching slowly for her gun, to realize that her gun was missing! "Relax. I won't kill you, even if you're a cop." he said, and she felt something small and sharp penetrated the back of her neck. "Killing women was never my policy." was the last words she heard before everything blacked out.

She woke up to the softest of symphonies. Slowly taking in her surroundings, she realized that she was not in heaven - not dead! - but still in the helicopter. It had came to a rest on yet another rooftop of a building. Music was playing through a radio on the pilot's seat, the male blonde already left her. On her lap was the briefcase he had taken from the building. Above it was a folded letter. She took it and read its contents.

**"_Dear lovely miss cop:_**

**_I am so sorry I left without bidding my farewell. This case was my parting present for you. The one that your inconsiderate, foolish, irresponsible cop friends_ **(she smiled.)** _took was a fake one. He knew cops were coming for it. As for the sudden knock out, there was a device I asked my fellow friend to install on the seat you're sitting on, to specifically knock out any unwelcome intruders by a press of a button. _**(She looked behind her, and something was really hidden in between the stuffing of the cushion!)** _I told you, everything is going to be alright._"**

He left no significant signature, but the numbers 18152535 was left below the letter. She thought that the numbers was his number, but the combination was far too short to be his contact number. She eased her legs, stuffed the letter into her pocket before stepping out of the helicopter, searching for the door that leads the way down into the building. When she found the exit and spiralled her way down the stairs, the familiar black and blue around her reminded her of... the police headquarters! She sped up her steps down the stairs, rushing to her boss's office, the case deep in her clenches.

"Mr. Bacon!" She yelled, barging into her boss's office without knocking. The older male glared at her through an opened suitcase on his table, a bar of chocolate between his teeth. She held back her hard panting as she thrusted the case to her boss. Mr. Bacon raised one of his eyebrows, shifted his glasses, got up from his seat, taking over the case on her hand. He took one large bite of his chocolate, settling the bar away, and opened the case, typing away at the keyboard embedded inside it. After much fiddling with the case, a smile graced on Mr. Bacon's chocolate-stained lips.

"Absolutely brilliant, Miss...?"

"Silence, sir. I preferred to be called Silence."

"Very well, Miss Silence. It seemed that you have brought the right case to us!" he beamed, and she got infected by the smile. She imitated his smile. "I will report about this to the Service. Take some rest, fellow officer." he winked, shutting the case and was going to leave the office, before he retraced his steps back to his table, grabbed the chocolate bar and gave it to Silence.

"Chocolate is good for you." With this, he disappeared through the door of his office. Silence smiled at the chocolate bar.

Success on her first mission.

There was only one person to thank.

**xXx**

"Took me days to find you," voiced Silence. She was in a coffee shop, talking to somebody.

"That was fast. Thought you needed weeks, or maybe months."

"I'm not _that _incapable of cracking your stupid code!" she retorted. "The most traditional deciphering of all, the Alphabet Code, isn't it?" The person sitting opposite her nodded.

"Royce," both of them said in unison, and the male blonde who had saved her from the hacker chuckled. "Yes, this is Royce. Who is this?" he made a Shaka sign, his little finger close to his mouth and his thumb at his ear, mimicking a person answering a phone call. The officer mirrored his actions. "This is Silence. I just wanted to say thank you." Royce smiled from across the table. "We had our own wants, don't say that."

"I insist," pressed Silence once again. "I believe a thanks is in order."

"Tell me about your hearing," said Royce all of a sudden.

"Pardon?" she caught his words the first time, and she had wanted to confirm if he was really requesting that.

"You wanted to thank me. Maybe you could tell me about your damaged hearing? Or should I ask for a different favor?" he smiled and leaned forward in his seat. "I could always put the most expensive ice cream on your tab."

"Oh, about my handicap is just fine." A peek into the menu and she had decided to not risk her purse burning from the inside. Royce nodded, gesturing for her to go on. "I got into an accident which damaged my hearing when I was small. I can still hear things only if they're loud, but I'll need a pair of earpiece to listen to normal voices. Plus, I can read lips. Not to brag or anything." She tucked her hair behind her ear, revealing a bright orange earpiece which matched the color of her hair. "You're very observant to..."

Before she could finish her sentence, Royce stood up from his seat, hunched over to Silence, and kissed her on her exposed ear, right on the earpiece. People around them began to smile at them, some even let out small cheers. True, the combination of an extremely dashing blonde and a gorgeous redhead had attracted attention, but it was this that made everyone trained their gaze on them.

"Sie sind sehr schön," Royce said before he made a run to the door, cleverly hid himself from plain view in the streets moments later. Silence sat there, blushing, but when she realized that Royce was gone, she dug her pockets for her name card that she meant to gave the blonde for further contact. But something else fell out.

A paper.

_"Let's be friends, Silence. I'll have an eye out for you from now on."_

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><p><strong>Royce and Silence's back story! :)<strong>

**And I want to ask something really important...**

**Do you guys like shorter updates or longer ones? Because I know sometimes if the fic is too long you guys would get bored, so...**

**Comments please?**

**And Tintin/Zoe romance in the next chapter!**

**~Velonica Sushi**


	6. Chapter 6

**Split this from the last chapter because I feel like it :)**

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><p><strong><em>"Daft Grotesque Feelings"<em>**

"That was madness!" said Tintin as they - himself, Zoe, Snowy and Shady - reached the subway. They were waiting for a train to arrive. A monitor screen indicated that another train will arrive in 3 minutes. "What had you done to the front gate?"

"Easy," Zoe said, taking one final deep breath, and showed him another of her button-shaped inventions. "These unlock locks. As long as they're bounded together by either metal or electric. God, do you understand what am I talking about?" Zoe asked when she saw Tintin wore a confused look. The journalist shook his head. "Never mind, I'll give more demonstrations when we get home."

Zoe knelt down to pat at Shady, who had gotten dirt and grass on his fur. Looking at Snowy, the white terrier was stained too. She smiled at Snowy, and reached out her other hand to ruffle at his fur too. Then to her surprise, Snowy began to lick at Shady's dirty spots, driving the black cat mad and hissing at him. Snowy seemed amused to annoy Shady, and began nudging at the smaller animal, who tried to leap away from his tongue and tackle. Zoe slowly stood up again, chuckling at the pair. Tintin smiled at them too, sweeping his tuft of hair back, only to let it rebound to its previous position on top of Tintin's head.

"That's interesting," Zoe found herself saying as she saw this particular movement. "Your hair, I mean. It never seemed to bend, no matter what."

"I don't really know either. I don't even use any hair gel."

"Cool. You need to let me check your hair samples someday."

A low rumble resonated in the subway, and a train came zooming past against the electronic doors, slowly coming to a halt, fully stopping when the entrance-cum-exit was aligned with the electronic doors. Both doors opened in unison, and the exchange of the flow of people going in and coming out began. Tintin and Zoe waited for the people inside the train to come out before entering it with Snowy and Shady. Both the pair of cat and dog made themselves comfortable at the space under their owner's seats. There was still people using the subway at this time, but it was already past the rush hour time, so everybody on the train gets a seat for themselves.

Tintin looked at the flashing indicator on the walls of the train that shows them their current location and the list of potential stops and destinations. Their apartment on Labrador Street was still quite a few stops away. He looked around the cabin he was in. The train had started speeding towards its next destination as he observed.

To his opposite sat a teenage girl, not more than 16 in age, who had her brown head buried in a comic book. To her right two seats away sat a man who was pressing away at his i-Phone with his headsets on. To her left sat an old couple, chatting away about their family and friends. There were more people further away, but Tintin had decided that there's where his eyes should stop.

A small weight landed unexpectedly on Tintin's shoulder. He looked to his right, and realized that the weight was actually Zoe's head resting on his shoulder.

_She was asleep. _Tintin thought, noticing the gentle rise and descend of her chest. He blushed, wanting to push her away, but decided that he would let his friend use his shoulder as a temporary pillow for the time being.

Nothing was wrong until the teenage girl sitting opposite him looked up from her comic book. Her eyes caught Tintin and Zoe, and a smile immediately etched on her face. It was only then Tintin noticed how misleading Zoe's actions could be. The old couple stopped talking and looked at them as well.

"Young love nowadays are sweet, aren't they, George?" The old woman said, sighing contentedly to herself.

"I'm sure ours are, too." The old man - George - said, and hold the woman's crinkly hands in his own. Both of them shared a warm smile, Tintin and the teenage girl got caught up in the atmosphere as well, their lips curving upwards in a nice arc. Tintin looked at the teenage girl once again, and she quickly hid her face under her comic book. Tintin glanced at the cover of the book. _Tintin in the Land of the Soviets._

_What an interesting title. People are using my name to create comics. Or it's just a huge coincidence._ Tintin thought, and shifted his gaze elsewhere in the cabin, waiting for the train to reach their destination. Passengers come and go in the cabin, and the girl got off at the station just before theirs. She waved a shy goodbye at Tintin, before hopping off the train. After the train had announced that they're approaching Labrador Street, Tintin shook Zoe awake.

The inventor woke up with a small jolt, and when she learned that she had been leaning on Tintin's shoulder, she went red on the face, but the first thing she did was to check on his shirt.

"I'm sorry, I always drool when I sleep. I hope I didn't wet your clothes." Zoe slurred, and after confirming that she hadn't soaked the journalist's shirt, she gave out a small, relieved smile.

"It's okay," Tintin said, and the train came to a stop. Zoe called for Shady and Snowy under both their seats, telling them it's time to go. The doors slide open, and they exited the cabin, with Tintin bidding the old couple goodbye.

"Do you know them?" Zoe asked after they had came out from the train.

"We, uh... had some small talk." Tintin lied, and Zoe just nodded and walked towards her apartment.

"What did you saw up there?" Tintin asked, changing the subject.

"Dorothy Criss sitting in front of a blood red computer screen." Zoe said, musing about it for a while. "I think it must have been somehow related to the Grotesque Ritual."

"Grotesque Ritual? What was that?" Tintin found himself hard to catch up with the amount of new phrases in his life.

"It's a website." Zoe said, rubbing her cheek to provide heat against the chilly night air. "It's a website that was made mainly for woman. But men went up there too. People stopped by the Grotesque, write the name of their loved ones, and the bad things that they want to happen to their darlings."

"For example, I was cheated by a man. I want the man to die, but in a pretty way, so I log on to this website, write out my description of him and his death, and wait for a few days for a simulation of a video which features this man's death to arrive in my email account." Zoe explained, and Tintin stared at her, incapable of forming words at that moment.

"Are you thinking that those killings were inspired by people who wrote those descriptive deaths on the site?" Tintin asked, horrified by the overall idea of it.

"It could be," said Zoe. "I mean, anything is possible. But we're clueless right now."

While they're speaking and walking, they had reached at their apartment. It was already late, and Mrs. Finch's unit had a glimmering yellow light on. They welcomed themselves into the apartment, careful to not wake Mrs. Finch.

Tintin and Zoe stopped at the journalist's apartment door.

"Okay, so I guess we'll see each other in the morning?" Zoe asked, smiling politely.

"Yeah, sure. I don't have any stories to cover, and following this one was certainly worth it." Tintin said, smiling back at Zoe.

"Although I'm pretty sure this was counted as 'solving a crime', but whatever." Zoe said, and waved her hand at Tintin. "Okay, handsome. I have to get my beauty sleep now. I have been sleepless for nights. Let's hope those inventions be damned tonight."

Without warning, Tintin caught Zoe's hand in his, flipping it so that the upside of her palm faced him. He brought it close to his lips, and landed a kiss on her closed fingers.

"Sleep tight, _inventor._"

Zoe's face was burning. Tintin didn't knew his pointless little flirt could bring such a reaction in her. He had never had time to interact with females for a long time, and now at the one time he had his chance, he'd kissed her hand. He was certain that she would slap him. She pulled her hand away from Tintin, returned him with a sentence of her own.

"You too, _reporter._"

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><p><strong>Excuse my lack of knowledge for subways and trains. My only experience was the time I went to Singapore for a vacation :) Most of the railway stuff were based on that.<strong>

**And this was dedicated to my dear Erik. :3**

**~Velonica Sushi**


	7. Chapter 7

**Review reply to Ace Reader: Especially the ones the older generation make. XD**

**Thanks to Fanofallthings for adding this story into your favorites!**

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><p><em><strong>"The Sea Captain and the Drunken Seagull" <strong>_

The next morning, Tintin woke up to the sound of his cell's alarm – yes, he didn't know that the alarm function existed until he had fumbled with his cell the night earlier – and proceeded to make himself presentable. When he reached to his wardrobe, he found himself pondering about what to wear. This was weird, considering that he'd usually put on whatever his hands could grab firsthand. It must've been something related to his new neighbor.

Swatting that thought aside, Tintin put on a blue-collared white T-shirt and a pair of jeans, made his way to the counter to brew himself a cup of nice, warm coffee. After gulping down the coffee, Tintin went upstairs to check up on his neighbor.

Nobody answered the knocks on her door.

It was the voice of glass shattering that caught Tintin's attention. He turned his head around, and saw a certain drunken inventor wobbling her way up the flight of stairs that led to her apartment, a half-shattered beer bottle in her hand. An equally drunk, huge-sized man clambered behind her, singing an off-tuned song. The young woman joined in his singing as well, ending the horrible duet with a strong throw of the remaining wine bottle on the floor as the huge bearded man leapt out of the way quite agilely for someone his size.

"Zoe! What in the actual… You're drunk?" Tintin demanded, racing over to the woman, holding her arms to keep her standing straight. She smelled strongly of alcohol, smoke, and… chips? Well, that was only in her mouth anyway…

"Whoa, whoa! Wait. What?" Tintin pried off Zoe's lips on his, blushing madly, his face heating up. "Why did you just kiss…"

"Because we are making progress on the case, baby! Yeah!" Zoe roared and made a twist on the spot, before she passed out in Tintin's arms. He started to dig for Zoe's house keys as the broader man searched for something in his own jacket as well. But no matter how Tintin dug, he couldn't find her house keys!

"There you go," said the burly man, handing over the dangling keys to the journalist, and Tintin finally made an effort to look at the burly man in the face.

It was Captain Haddock!

"How did you get it?" questioned Tintin as he juggled the keys in his hand, beaming excitedly at the sea captain.

"She put this as the stake for anyone who could win her in her own stupid chip-eating competition, lad. With this potential jail bait hanging around, I cannot really leave her to her own devices, can I?" Captain Haddock said, taking a swig from one of his smaller bottles tucked in his jacket. _Oh yes you can, _Tintin thought. _If you had saw the _devices _that she made. _"Some other man won the keys, but I managed to get the keys from that man and looked after her in the bar. She did most of the approaches to all of the males in the bar, asking around for information regarding… What's the name again?"

"Thanks for taking care of her," Tintin interrupted at the beefy man's thoughts, but the man didn't seem to mind. He ignored the name he was supposed to remember, and took another swig of his beer.

"Okay, Captain. I would really appreciate it if you could help me hold her up while I unlock her front door." Tintin said, and Haddock caught Zoe with just an arm, letting the passed out female lean against him while the ginger-haired journalist opened the door to Zoe's apartment.

Haddock volunteered to take Zoe inside, and he settled her down on the couch, the former voyager slumping beside her while Tintin got a seat opposite the couch they're sitting on.

"Since you're quite sober, Captain, can you tell me who is Zoe looking for?" Tintin asked. Haddock looked confused at the mentioning of Zoe. It took him a while for the pieces to settle in.

"Oh! So that's her first name!" Haddock slapped his forehead. "I'm sorry, she asked us to call her Flynn." He cleared his throat and continued. "She was lookin' for a guy named Royce. Muttering something about the Ritual being a fake lead. What's a Ritual, anyway?" Haddock asked, and the air he puffed was _still _saturated with alcohol. Tintin's nose scrunched on the smell of it.

"It was nothing important, actually," Tintin said, and stood up from his seat, extending his hand out to Haddock. "Thank you for all the help."

"You're always welcomed, Tintin," the large man said, pulling out a rumpled cap from his jacket and putting it on before he stood up and shook Tintin's hand. "Ring me if you need anything. I'll do my best to help."

Seeing that Tintin had received the piece of paper which had a group of numbers scribbled onto it, Haddock continued.

"Oh, Flynn also gave me this," shoving a piece of lemon slice to Tintin's face, Haddock explained. "Lemonata, she said. Saliva turns these parts (Captain Haddock pointed to the insides of the slice) sour, and it keeps me sober! Well, sober enough to drink more! Flynn also told me that it had no limits on being used, but it needed to have a refill now and then. I guess this was her way of keeping contact?" Haddock said, and roared with laughter, tucking the lemon slice back into his jacket. "I'll see you soon, Tintin!"

"Captain," the journalist said, nodding and smiling while seeing the sea captain off Zoe's apartment. Looking back at the snoring inventor on the couch, Tintin decided to start the investigation on his own.

Starting from this man named Royce.

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><p><strong>I know that this chapter is quite short.. But I'm busy with school stuff lately...<strong>

**Nevertheless, hoped you guys enjoyed it!**

**Especially drunk Zoe. XD And the kiss. :D**

**~Velonica Sushi**


	8. Chapter 8

**Review reply to Luna's World: Thank you for the encouraging and incredibly awesome and nice review! Yeah, haters gonna hate. XD Thanks for dropping by and remember to check on this story every Saturday! :D**

**Review reply to Tintinlover: Hey~! Welcome back! :D Why thank you, and I certainly hope you will keep following this as well!**

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><p><em><strong>"Of Hangovers and Pizzas"<strong>_

By the moment Zoe woke up, she felt nothing but the constant drumming in her head. Pressing the base of her palm to her forehead, Zoe silently cursed to herself. "Damn those alcohol. Burns so muc- ow- ow- ow- OUCH!" The intensity of the pain increased while she was complaining. _Thank you, Zoe. For trying to think so much after a hangover. Now you could start working on your algebra to work your brain._

"Here," Tintin's voice rang beside her, a cup of warm water appearing at the side of her face. Warm air drifted out from the cup, gently caressing against her face. Reaching out her hand and cupping the offered liquid in her palms, Zoe thanked Tintin for bringing her water to drive away the headache.

"It was nothing, really." Tintin said, taking a bite of an Oreo in his left hand, between his fingers. "Thank Captain Haddock for making sure you got home safely. I just watched you sleep." Zoe raised her right eyebrow at the last statement. Tintin shrugged as a response.

"I didn't... say or do anything weird when I'm drunk, right?" Zoe asked, reminding Tintin of Zoe's unexpected kiss. He cleared his throat and looked away. Tintin didn't need reminding of embarrassing stuff like that. But he had to admit, the kiss would be nice if she was not drunk.

Despite all the thoughts running in his head, Tintin managed to shake his head, before pressing her on yesterday's events.

"Shouldn't you be asleep yesterday night after I'd see you off?" Tintin asked.

"Slipped out," Zoe took a sip of the warm water, smacking her lips as the liquid flowed down her throat. "Another sleepless night. Thought I'd used the night to search for more clues about the case. And I found a clue." Ignoring that she probably smelled like cheap beer, she loomed towards Tintin. "A _big _clue."

Tintin backed off from her, but his eyes were fixed on her. "What clue?"

"Grotesque Ritual has nothing to do with this case," announced Zoe, and she had expected Tintin to bear some sort of reaction. He didn't.

"What, you had it figured out?" Zoe asked when she saw Tintin smiling at her. It was kind of a smug smile, but surprisingly, Zoe found herself looking into Tintin's blueish eyes. Why does blue eyes always brings out the handsome in a guy?

"Captain Haddock told me that you're running around yelling, "Grotesque Ritual has nothing to do with this case"," Tintin made air quotation marks as he speak, and the both of them chuckled to each other, filling the room with a more lighter atmosphere.

"I guess I'm having too much beer last night," said Zoe, and a small hiccup escaped her lips. "I'm sorry, that wasn't intend-hic!"

Tintin who was trying not to giggle at Zoe's first hiccup now burst into a series of laughters.

"Can't a woman get sympathy after having a hang -hic!- over?" Zoe growled, and Tintin couldn't help but turning his head away from Zoe to control his stomach from getting too twisted up because of his laughs. "Great, great, great. Just laugh at the Service's most wanted inventor." Zoe flung her hand at Tintin's direction, letting the cup occupy a space on the table... Wait, since when the table was so tidy?

"Did anybody came in here before?" Zoe asked, although she had probably knew the reason to the suddenly tidy apartment of hers. One does not need to be a Sherlock to deduce such a simple mystery.

"Nope, why?" Tintin asked, and looked at the cup on Zoe's table. Then around the room where everything was back into their respective places. Then back to the cup on the table. _Yeah, I should have left some books on the table. It was too clean and tidy for her. _Tintin covered his face with his palm, groaning inwardly. His attempt of helping her clean up her apartment like a ninja had been a failure.

"Thank you," said Zoe, confirming her guesses with Tintin's body language. She shuffled over to Tintin's laptop on the other side of her table, peering into the laptop screen. Only one tab was kept on.

"You don't listen to songs or anything when you're on the computer?" was Zoe's question as she looked at the single tab opened on Tintin's browser. To her surprise, information and pictures of Royce were splashed all over on the website. Taking a better look, it was actually Royce's records from the Interpol.

**_"Name: Royce Rackham._**

**_Age: 25_**

**_Height: 180cm_**

**_Weight: 63kg_**

**_Records:_**

**_- Shoplifting (Year 2000)_**

**_**_- Pirated goods scam (Year 2005)_**_**

**_- Sexual harassment on a police officer (Year 2007, 2008, 2009)_****_"_**

Huh, if only they knew what a true monster you are.

Zoe blinked at the screen, and looked at Tintin. "Why are you looking up Royce's information?"

"I heard from Haddock that you're looking for him," said Tintin, walking over to her and looked at his laptop, planting one palm on the side of the laptop to support himself. "Why, is there anything wrong about his information?"

Zoe stifled a giggle. "I'm looking for Royce, yes. But in a friends-meeting-up kind of looking, silly." Tintin's face turned red in embarrassment. So she was just searching for a friend! Not the person who could lead them to the mysterious killings of 12 men! His previous efforts of talking Thompson and Thomson into using their Interpol accounts had gone down the drain.

"But thanks for the help, Tintin," Zoe said, and patted her hand on Tintin's. Tingles and small sparkles shot between the both of them, but if the both of them felt something, they did not show it on their faces. Tintin was just a shy journalist with a small crush, and Zoe just cannot afford to think of a life with a man by her side.

"Now if you will excuse me, I'm going to take a bath, and we will discuss more of the reason why the Grotesque isn't in our hit list over some fine pizza, which you will need to order right now!" Tossing her phone to Tintin - who caught it with superb reflexes -, she strutted her way into the bathroom, an imaginary red carpet lining her way as she did so. Tintin fought to grab the phone properly, and called Domino's, which Zoe had on speed dial, ordering a pizza for the both of them.

**xXx**

"Nothing beats pizza with cheeze and pineapple chunks on it," said Zoe, rubbing her hands in delight when she saw a steaming hot pizza lying on the table, waiting for somebody to grab a slice of it. She had just emerged from the bath, and her hair was still dripping wet. Hair dryers were boring to Zoe. She'd preferred drying her hair manually.

While she was prancing over to her pizza box, Tintin appeared between her and her destined love.

"Excuse me, what are you doing?" Tintin demanded, his hands on either side of his waists, staring emotionless at Zoe.

"Please, just let me through. The pizza needs me!" Zoe whined while trying to get past Tintin by moving left and right, but Tintin was faster than her, effectively blocking her way to her brunch.

"Your hair is wet," Tintin commented, as if he was talking about something normal like the weather.

"So what? I'm entitled to do what I like in my own freaking house!" Zoe retorted, and groaned as Tintin refused to make way. She was going to hit the journalist square in the jaw, before he threw a small towel at her direction, hitting her face.

"At least wipe it dry. Don't make it a dripping mess," Receiving a glare from Zoe, Tintin added. "Don't make me go over there and rub it for you, Zoe."

Throwing the towel back to Tintin, Zoe flopped herself onto the mattress on the corner of the living room. Tintin had the towel in one hand as he looked at the inventor.

"Come on, Tintin. You said you could do it for me."

Tintin was startled, but he was the one who started this ridiculous thing. "Sure, you overgrown baby."

The journalist felt like he was nursing a child when he was rubbing at Zoe's unruly hair. Water droplets sprinkled out at different directions, but Tintin doesn't mind that. He could hear Zoe humming softly to herself beneath his towel, bobbing her head as she did so.

"You know, my mum used to do this for me," Zoe said in all of a sudden after she had finished with her tune. Tintin's eyes widened a little in interest.

"Oh? So you're implying that I could pass as a mother?" asked Tintin, and Zoe gently shook her head after laughing sarcastically.

"A overgrown-baby sitter, yes," Zoe said, and Tintin rubbed harder at Zoe's hair. The inventor tried to struggle out from Tintin, but she stopped that after some distant memory popped up from her memory bank, choosing to snuggle towards Tintin instead.

Tintin was shocked, and was more than ready to jump up like a startled rabbit and leave her side. He was not accustomed to close contact with girls who invaded his personal space, and Zoe was never an exception in his life.

"Just... stay like this for a while, mum," said Zoe in a shattered voice, like she was choked on something. "You can treat me as Vince. Just stay happy."

Tintin tried to find words to say to Zoe and her sudden mood swing. Who is Vince? Why did she just referred to him as her mother? Is this somehow related to her family? Should I let go? What should I do, kiss her tears - stop that, Tintin. Not cool. - or give her a hug, or...?

"Here, Zoe. Your pizza," Tintin said, removing the towel from the top of Zoe head. "Binge away your ugly tears, crybaby."

* * *

><p><strong>AKA how Tintin sneakily called Zoe "baby" two times without getting noticed.<strong>

**Does anyone here find themselves having a never ending unresolved sexual tension between themselves and FOOD? XD**

**= 3 = b**

**~Velonica Sushi**


	9. Chapter 9

**Thanks to Luna's World and Black Jack and Coca Cola for adding this story into your favorites!**

**Thanks to Luna's World and Black Jack and Coca Cola for adding this story into your alerts!**

**Review reply to Luna's World: ARE YOU OKAY? GET MORE REST! I hate hearing people I care about falling sick, you know. And yes, Zoe is British. :D Thank you for reviewing! Get well soon! :D**

**Review reply to (): I'm gonna assume that you're my Erik, since you called me Charles. XD A very happy valentines day to you too! Hugs and kisses!**

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><p><strong><em>"Mansions, Madame Raven."<em>**

"Now, about the fake lead…" said Zoe as she munched on her pizza. Her teeth sank into the warm, baked dough, chewing at the meat and cheese and pineapple chunks. She swallowed everything before she continued. "Grotesque Ritual is just a wretched mess, really. Full of talented graphic creators, but nothing more than that. They're not killers, that's for sure." Waiting for Tintin to digest the information, Zoe reached out to her Pepsi, downing it in huge slurps.

"How did you know that?" Tintin questioned. "All 12 names were on the website."

"A huge coincidence, then," Zoe answered, and added. "I know that Grotesque is a fake lead thanks to Royce. He told me that…" She hesitated on the amount of information she was going to share with Tintin. After all, they had just met a few days ago, and she had not laid all share of her trust on him. "Anyway, I would really need to talk to him. Something big is about to happen."

Finishing her slice of pizza, Zoe slapped both of her hands together, sweeping crumbs away from her palms as she stood up, taking the pizza box with her.

"I'm going to Royce's place to pay him a visit," said Zoe, looking at Tintin, eyeing at the piece of pizza on his hand, but she was too full to eat another slice of it, and she gave up having ideas about the pizza. "It was supposed to be a private meet up, but since you're on this case as well, maybe the three of us could figure something out together. Come on, finish your pizza and we'll leave as soon as I get dressed."

**xXx**

Royce's house was nothing like Tintin had imagined.

Tintin knew that Royce was working like an artist, but the place he lived in was a bloody mansion! Tintin swore he would become an artist in his next life.

"Pretty huge house for an artist," commented Tintin as he gaped at the delicately carved front gate of Zoe's friend. A gardener was working in the garden beyond the fence, but he took no notice of both Tintin and Zoe.

"Yeah, he sells just the nice and expensive art," Zoe said, rolling her eyes at Tintin's amusement as she pressed on the doorbell and waited for somebody to answer it.

"Come in, my friend! You know you're invited if you don't die immediately at my front gate!" came a cheery male voice through the answering machine on the wall, just beside the bell.

"There are visitors, Royce. Could you at least act human?" Zoe said, and the voice at the other end of the speaker cleared his throat.

"Welcome, humans! I would have gotten there myself, but it seems that I have a few problems with my drawing, so I would be glad if the both of you could enter by yourself and make yourself at home," said Royce, abruptly shutting the speaker, and the front gate swung opened slowly, letting both journalist and inventor into the mansion.

"Let's go, I know where he is," Zoe cut into Tintin's thoughts, which were distracted by the array of flowers, plants, and a huge swimming pool just behind the mansion. Not to mention that there was also a greenhouse present in the deeper parts of the garden. "He must've been cooped up in his room with his drawings again."

Zoe led Tintin through the mansion, introducing rooms and the hallways, which have their way of intersecting against each other, as well as the ability of making people disappear just by walking aimlessly. Tintin took in his surroundings carefully, not wanting to get lost in this twisted form of a labyrinth.

They finally reached the Drawing Room, as Zoe had dubbed it, the place where Royce had all his drawings done. Zoe pushed a finger at the door, and it budged open without any creaking. Pushing the door open, they saw paints, brushes, colors and canvases were tossed everywhere, littering the room in one of the worst ways possible, a stark contrast to the neat and tidy rooms of the other rooms of the mansion.

A blonde man sat opposite them, at the middle of the room, with his back facing the duo. He was working on a painting.

"Welcome, Zoe," he greeted the inventor.

"Hey, Royce. This is Tintin," Zoe said, gesturing at Tintin. The journalist was waiting for the artist to turn around and make a proper introduction, but the blonde just hummed as an answer.

"The never-resting tuft of ginger hair," said the blonde. He made another stroke of brown on his picture. "I think I had seen you before. Not personally, but in the papers. You're the one responsible to unravel the Unicorn's secret, right?"

Tintin was amazed by the blonde man in an instant. He did not even have to look at Tintin, and yet he had already known that much about him!

"Now, don't look so surprised, darling," the artist said, turning around in his seat, pointing his paintbrush at a small side mirror sticking out at the left side of the easel he was using. "I don't like people creeping up on me when I'm working, so I installed this myself." Putting his brush away in one of the stained pallets, he extended his hands to Tintin.

"Royce Cameron."

"Tintin," he shook his hand. "Although I'm pretty sure you had already known me." Tintin added stupidly. Royce chuckled.

"To be honest, I thought the whole smashing up Bagghar act was epic! You saved the people of the drying city!" Royce said happily, mimicking a salute to the journalist. Tintin let out a genuine smile.

"That was unintended, really." Tintin chuckled at the memory of it, where he had accidentally fired a bazooka without looking where he had aimed, and the next thing he knew, he had already blasted off the palace dam. "But I'm glad I had helped them."

"You should," said Royce, shifting his attention to Zoe. "So how was my marvelous sister?" he beamed at Zoe, catching her in a huge hug, cheekily wiping color from his fingers onto her shirt.

"You're going to buy me a new shirt, Royce," muttered Zoe before returned Royce's hug with an equally warm one of her own. Tintin looked at the both of them in disbelief.

"You're siblings?" asked Tintin, eyes widening in shock. Zoe and Royce shook their heads in sync.

"I have always wanted a sister," Royce said, ruffling Zoe's hair. "And she was the best sister anybody could find."

"Please, I'm not _that _good a sister," answered Zoe. "We're just close friends, me and Royce, that's all."

"And I take it that you're her boyfriend?" Royce asked, pointing at Tintin with his green index finger. His fingers are slender and well-shaped, quite the match with Zoe's equally skillful ones, and Tintin had the vague impression that Royce was really Zoe's brother, and that the artist was judging him like how brothers inspect their sister's boyfriends.

And then he set the thought on fire.

They were not a 'thing'! Did he just imagine that he was Zoe's boyfriend? Yes, he did.

Tintin quickly shook his head, as if he was denying a charge of murder. Nobody took notice of the small frown that flashed over Zoe.

"Just a friend," Tintin answered.

"Come on, Royce. I'm here for business." Said Zoe, propping herself down on a colorful chair, with Tintin doing the same.

"What business?" Royce asked, arching an eyebrow suspiciously.

"_Normal _business, Cameron." Zoe said, and reminded him of the Grotesque being a fake lead. If Tintin had any doubts about the pair, he made himself to not ever show it on his face. A paranoid millionaire artist who installed a side mirror on his easel in case of a surprise attack and a first class inventor. Everything could go wrong in seconds.

He was just a journalist who knew how to drive anything. That was not an advantage. Not in this situation.

"I have a friend who manages Grotesque," Great, the millionaire artist had a sick graphic designer friend. "He said he knew nothing about the Bloody Mary case. But he certainly gave me this." Digging his ragged pockets, he dug out a crumpled flyer.

"This came in my friend's house a few months ago," said Royce, unfolding the flyer. "He was scared and want out as one of the admin, but I guess every sane person would do the same."

The flyer was a bright red color. Exactly the color of blood.

**_DID ANYBODY BETRAY YOU IN YOUR PAST?_**

**_DID YOU EVER FEEL LIKE YOU WANT TO KILL SOMEBODY, BUT DO NOT HAVE THE GUTS TO DO IT?_**

**_I, MADAME RAVEN, WILL DO IT FOR YOU._**

**_FOR A PRICE._**

**_AND IT WILL BE WORTH IT._**

**_NOTICE: WILL KILL MALES ONLY. FEMALES ARE NEVER MEANT TO BE MURDERED._**

**_CALL: M-A-D-A-M-E-R-A-V-E-N_**

**_P.s: Don't even try to take this to the police. Only your fingerprints are on it. They would not believe it anyway._**

**_P.P.s: Do try to respond to me if you got this. This is a limited flyer, which means I had already got you under my surveillance and I could see that you really need my help. That was the reason this was in your hands._**

"He got this flyer, and a text message told him to quit Grotesque if he values his life."

"But how did you get that?" asked Tintin, pointing to the flyer in Royce's hands.

"I… happen to got this flyer when he was busy drinking himself unconscious. I figured that this Madame Raven - instead of Grotesque - was behind all the killings, so I rang Zoe and told her about it." Royce said, stuffing the flyer back into his pocket.

"Why doesn't Madame Raven just keep things the way they are?" Zoe asked. "I mean, the police, the media and the public had assumed that Grotesque was the one behind the killings."

"Maybe she wanted to make her own name instead of hiding behind someone else's," suggested Tintin.

"She's one hell of a scary lady," commented Zoe.

"I think we should ring this… Madame Raven," Royce said. "This flyer wasn't meant for us. We have the element of surprise. And we could try and track down the coordinates of her location through the call."

"Sometimes this was the reason you're my best friend," Zoe said, mashing her lips on Royce's cheeks.

This time, nobody noticed the uneasy look that flashed before Tintin's eyes.

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><p><strong>Jealous!Tintin is jealous. XD<strong>

**Next chapter, Silence makes her appearance once again! :)**

**And this chapter was updated slightly earlier because me and my family are going to visit my grandfather, and it takes a long time to go back and forth, so I guess I could update this sooner for you all! :)**

**Enjoy!**

**~Velonica Sushi**


	10. Chapter 10

**Thanks to WeAllLiveInAYellowSubmarine for adding this story into your favorites!**

**Thanks to WeAllLiveInAYellowSubmarine and SeirenTheReader for adding this story into your alerts!**

**Review reply to comedywizard: Thank you! :D Sure, every Saturday! XD**

**Review reply to (): Royce is adorable! :)**

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><p><em><strong>"Real Life Vampire"<strong>_

"Royce! This phone looks so nice!" Zoe called out to her friend as she examined every single phone that was managed to cramp in that one particular room.

"Oh please. It's my 'Phone Room', of course it should be filled with rare and exotic phones! You know, like stamps, ceramics, collectibles, stuff like that?" Royce paced slowly in his room, giving elaborations of it before addressing Zoe. "Oh no, not that, Zoe. That was not wired, and it doesn't have a tracker system." He looked at the skull-shaped phone and giggled at it while Tintin and Zoe looked at Royce with unexplained emotions on his face.

"I'm sorry, I just find the idea of a skull-phone hilarious," Royce explained, coughing awkwardly as he patted the top of the skull, and continued strolling down his room.

"Why do you have… _phones _gathered together in a room?" Tintin asked, his eyes never left the array of phones on the walls and tables of the room since he was introduced to the Phone Room. He find it weird yet fascinating for somebody to have a hobby of collecting phones.

"When you have too much money and too many rooms in your house, you will do strange stuff, Tintin." Royce answered, pushing a smaller door at a corner of the room, entering an enclosed space beyond the Phone Room.

"This is what I would like to call my Spy Artist Headquarters!" announced Royce, turning around by the soles of his feet to face Tintin and Zoe as he moved backwards, extending his arms up and above him in an arc, like a magician during his performance. Lights and machines flared into life behind him, Tintin and Zoe watched in amazement. Built-in machines whirring, chemical set ups boiling under extreme supervision by robots, TV-sized monitors on walls displaying street view shots from CCTVs; the whole place seemed like the headquarters of the Secret Service itself!

"You have your journalist; I have my technician, Zoe." After winking at the gawping pair, Royce attempted to twirl around in his spot to face the room, but while he was turning – imaginary glitter emitting from him – his leg caught on a particularly thin wire just centimeters above the ground, topping him off his balance and falling face first onto the metal tiles of the room.

Loud, booming laughter erupted throughout the room before Tintin and Zoe could laugh at Royce's attempt in being cool. The duo stopped the laughter that was welling in their throats, but eventually they laughed along with the mysterious laughing voice. Royce's face flushed red, and while he was collecting himself back to his feet, the broadcasted laughter died down, and a figure appeared from above the room, descending on a platform.

"Royce Cameron, the artistic assassin, fell face first in his own headquarters! Imagine how many views this will get on YouTube!" The male voice on the platform yelled, jumping down from it, landing graciously in front of Tintin and Zoe.

He had a set of red and black tuxedo on, his hands wearing a pair of gloves; white at his left and black at his right. Moreover, he was also wearing a black cape! Zoe's first impression of Royce's friend was "modernized dracula". When the man lifted his head from the shadows to look at them, they saw that he was even wearing a mask! It was Venetian-styled, but Zoe thought it actually brings out the handsome features of this unknown man. Long red hair tied up in a stylish ponytail, he could pass perfectly as a woman if he did not speak.

Tintin thought people around Royce was meant to be abnormal yet unique in their own way, just like the man in front of him. And Zoe.

"Ola, ole, my name is Chris Renierre, and it was a pleasure to meet you, Zoe Flynnaire and Tintinairre," the man – Chris – introduced himself in a funny accent, and Tintin could picture him with a bushy moustache. But that would clash with his smart attire, and… Tintin could not hide the growing giggle inside him.

"How did you know our names?" asked Zoe, wary of the man, but was still tickled by his attempts at being funny. Chris took hold of Zoe's palm, turning it over so that the top side of her palm was facing him. He lowered his lips, and was going to kiss her hand like a gentleman, but Royce cleared his throat, pulling Chris away from Zoe, whose face reddened – not from Chris, but from relieving the moment when Tintin kissed her hand that night.

But Tintin interpreted it the wrong way, and he added a name into his personal to-kill list if he and Madame Raven were best friends.

"I won't allow you to sexually harass my friend, Chris," Royce said, thrusting him the flyer of Madame Raven, pushing him down onto a plush blue seat against a series of monitor screens and several keyboards. "I need you to track the location of this number down as soon as we got our connection with it."

"I seriously think that you're wasting my talent on small matters like this, Royce," said Chris as he tapped away on the computers, programming codes and performing his technician skills. "You know perfectly well what I am capable of, sweetheart."

"And I intend for you to do just this one easy thing, honey pot," Royce cooed back, flattering his eyelids as he did so, and Zoe had to look away from staring at the both of them.

While the two men chatted away, Tintin had the feeling that he had got himself into something that could be bigger than just a serial murder case. First, Chris had called Royce an "artistic assassin", what does that mean? Second, Chris had not really answered Zoe's question – how did he knew their names without Royce's introduction? Zoe was drumming her fingers against her knees to the rhythm of a song, and Tintin asked her about the suspicious nickname. If she was his friend, then maybe she would know a thing or two.

"Oh, that. As you already know, Royce sells quality art, and people are dying – not literally, mind you! – to own his art, hence the nickname. But Royce had preferred if people could call him by his real name instead of the nickname," Zoe twitched her fingers around as she said, casting glances at the men over at the computers, and back at Tintin. She could stay fascinated about Tintin's standing tuff of hair forever.

"Zoe, Tintin, come on! You guys will need to see this woman go down!" Royce called, and Zoe broke eye contact with Tintin's hair, quickly making way towards a table with a wired phone on it. Tintin and Zoe took a seat on the chairs around the table, and looked at Royce as he dialed Madame Raven.

"Raven." A short and simple word came through the earpiece.

Chris's fingers started tapping on the keyboard of a laptop, but nobody took notice of him, their attention fixed on the phone as well as the conversation.

"I heard you're going around killing handsome men," said Royce.

"And you, going around drawing fantastic art."

Royce froze a bit at Raven's resourcefulness, but regained his composure in seconds. He was trained for anything, and he can do this.

"Royce Cameron. Interesting profile there. I hope I'm not in the way of your _business_."

"They say you enjoy ritual style killings."

"Say anything you want, Cameron. You're not going to take me down."

Royce looked over at Chris, who shoved his laptop in Royce's face, pointing at a map. "Prison Island," Chris mouthed to Royce.

"Shocked, aren't you? A call from the prison for law offenders with heavy charges. I hope this will teach you to not play with fire." With that, Madame Raven hung up, leaving Royce confused, and afraid when he had worked out the puzzle she had proposed to him.

"Collect all these in a file. I need to take them to my darling. She will know what to do," Royce ordered, his knuckles white, the colors draining from his face as well. Chris saw the expression on Royce's face, quickly hurried to store all of the data, and Zoe looked at her blonde friend stood up and leave the table, rubbing his face in his palm.

"Something's wrong," Zoe said to Tintin.

"Obviously. 12 people is dead. Royce looked like he had been told who the 13th person would be." Both Tintin and Zoe looked at each other right after Tintin had said that, and Tintin hoped he would keep this thought to himself. Now Zoe is going to worry about Royce and the danger of Madame Raven.

"I would gladly play with fire anytime," muttered Royce to himself, away from prying ears. "Even with you, Raven. But why Prison Island? Why do you have to be where Vince is?"

_Who the hell are you, Madame Raven?_

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><p><strong>AWWWWW YEAHHHHH Finally we reached the milestone that is chapter 10! :D<strong>

***CONFETTI!***

**The next update may be a bit short, because I am sitting for a test next week, and I have yet studied anything, hence I need all of the time I need to cramp everything into my unused brain.**

**Nevertheless, happy reading! And leave a review! It brightens every author's day!**

**~Velonica Sushi**


	11. Chapter 11

**Thanks to delphigirl689 for adding this story into your favorites!**

**Review reply to comedywizard: It's okay! That's what the anonymous review was there for! :D THANK YOU~! *HUGSANDKISSES* And one more thanks for the wish! :)**

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><p><strong><em>"Not Normal."<em>**

"When you said you are bringing two friends over, these two people are the last thing I had expected to appear before my eyes once again, Royce."

"But you had not known them personally and properly, darling! I bet it's because you're threatening to cook them for lunch with your eyes that caused them to be so wary of you."

"I did _not _cook people for lunc... I don't even _eat_ humans, damn it, Royce!"

"You should try it out sometime. The texture differs from every person depending on their composition of weight and their diet and…"

"_ROYCE!_"

"Okay, okay, I heard ya'll at the first time! Sil, sweetie pie, I now introduce you to Tintin and Zoe, a pair of newlyweds…"

Royce's face was instantly punched by a certain inventor, who lashed out at his jaw. Royce fell from his seat, clutching his face in pain.

"_OUCH_! What was that for?"

"_We're not newlyweds!" _Zoe yelled, retreating her fists back to herself.

"Heck, we're not even dating."

"Just friends."

"That's what they say, you guys have kids and then marriage then you guys became best friends."

"Wait! I don't care, okay? Royce!"

"Yes, ma'am!"

"Why are you even breathing in my office right now?"

"Oh, right… I want to show you something," Royce quickly clambered up from the floor, putting the chair back to its original position, and pulled out a pen drive from his pocket.

"First things first. Why are they here?" The orange haired woman asked after receiving the drive from Royce, referring to Tintin and Zoe, who are in the same room as well.

"They're also involved with this case," Royce answered.

Zoe was feeling uneasy with this woman. She and Tintin had run into her a few days before, when he and she first met at the crime scene of the 12th dead man. She was all high and mighty queen of the world, and Zoe does not take any liking to her. Now that she was questioning their existence as if she and Tintin were unwelcomed guests, a small flame inside Zoe sparked. The bad kind of flame.

"How?" The woman asked.

"Silence, baby, I think that Zoe could be a fairly good companion to be with, considering that she had managed to break into the highly secured Sawyer mansion. As for the ginger boy, well… Let's just say that he has yet to show his secret ninja skills." Royce said, and shrugged with a light smile.

"The Sawyer… _what? _The Sawyer mansion? Why didn't you tell me sooner? She could be one of the suspects!" Silence yelled, and Zoe felt something finally tick in her.

She hated people who accused her for stuff she was not.

"I am not a suspect," Zoe said quietly in her seat, glaring straight into Silence's green eyes. It was known that only 1 to 2 percent of the world's population have green eyes. She was lucky. Not to mention how well the striking orange hair was on her. It sort of reminded Zoe of the flaming dress of Katniss from The Hunger Games.

She felt ugly just by looking at Silence. But the older woman had branded her a suspect. That she would not tolerate no matter what.

"Then what the hell are you doing in Sawyer's mansion?" Silence retorted. "Trying to kill off the rest of the surviving members, I presume?" Silence noted Zoe's dark, raven hair and hazel brown eyes. That was…normal, and reminded Silence of something from her past.

Silence's bright orange hair had attracted a lot of attention since she was a child. Her mother was blonde, her father, a brunet. Where did the color come from? Lots of people questioned about her hair. It was also the main reason her parents sent her to a children's home, far away from her hometown.

"It was the girl or me, Sarah! Make your choice!" Silence had heard her father yell to her mother one night. The next thing she knew, she was hit over her left ear by her father, deafening it, fainted, and she woke up in an infirmary of a children's home.

After going through all that, you would think she would hate her family. But no, Silence never whined for them. They strip her of her hearing and dumped her behind, and she could do just the same. Just without the stripping off the hearing part.

She winced at the memory, and glared at Zoe, who strongly reminded her of her father with her looks. The same black hair and hazel eyes. Tsk. But this is not a moment for judging people because they look like your father. She needed this Zoe lady under her supervision.

"Okay, you know what, screw it. Stay as long as you want, but don't interrupt me when I'm working." Silence said, waving a hand at the raging Zoe, who was prepared to fire a lot of insults back to the Interpol detective. "I'm not wrong about calling you a suspect. Thought I might make this clear before we could work together like civilized humans."

"You son of a…" Zoe growled, getting ready to stand up and loom over Silence with her presence.

"Zoe, don't," Tintin rested his palm on Zoe's thigh, pressing her down on her seat in an attempt to calm her down. "Just ignore her. As long as you're innocent, nobody can lock you up in a cell."

Zoe looked at Tintin, her eyes filled with rage, but then softened by the baby blueness in his eyes.

"I believe you," Zoe finally said, and Tintin smiled in relief, patting her knee for further soothing, before returning his hand back to himself.

"See how adorable they are?" Royce asked, and winked at Tintin, a grin surfacing on his handsome but bruised face.

"Don't tempt me in tattooing your face with my fists, Royce," Zoe grunted and rolled her eyes, before making eye contact with Tintin again. They share a smile.

"If this isn't love, then I don't know what is."

"As if I need explaining. My eyes are melting from their sweetness."

"Sarcasm always sounds so sweet when they're from your lips, Sil darling."

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><p><strong>Just some short, fluff, sort of plotless update from yours truly.<strong>

**More plot revealing in the next chapter!**

**~Velonica Sushi**


	12. Chapter 12

**Thanks to Pink-Pencil-Girl303 and Maddog1997 for adding this story into your alerts!**

**Thanks to Yuki Shinzo for adding this story into your favorites!**

**Review reply to Luna's World: It's okay! I'm also studying for my previous test, so I know how it feels to not have much time for the internet :3 Awwwwh thank you! And I hope you would keep reading!**

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><p><strong><em>"The Great Plan"<em>**

"Prison Island, you say?" Silence muttered as she inserted the drive into her computer's USB port. A wave of her right hand and the curtains of her office were closed shut automatically, casting darkness over the whole room.

"Yeah, that's what I said," Royce said, turning a floral-patterned cup on Silence's desk, which appeared to be some kind of a secret mechanism, because screens started projecting on thin air in front of the array of shelves in Silence's office. Tintin felt that he had seen enough of spy gadgets and stuff to direct his own science fiction movie, but he knew that he would see more of them just by hanging around with people like Zoe and Royce.

The three screens projected the word 'LOADING...', and the four of them waited for it to finish uploading the data from the drive. Royce took this opportunity to feed Silence on the target they are pursuing on.

"Madame Raven is our target. We got proof that she could be on the Bloody Mary murders, and we tracked her from a pretty recent phone call. She was in Prison Island. We'll appreciate it if you could help us look up more data of her for us, darling."

When the loading was finished, clumps of data were stacked in the middle screen between the three. Silence stood up from her seat and moved towards the screens.

"Jaimes, are you awake?" She spoke to no one in particular, Tintin and Zoe bearing confused looks on their faces.

_"For__you, my lady, always."_

Both Tintin and Zoe jumped in their seats, staring at the screens that were slowly brightening into life right after the male voice coming from behind the book shelves faded.

"Did... Did something just _spoke_?" Tintin asked, never tearing his eyes off the screens. "And did that thing just replied?"

"I always thought that this was impossible for AI technology had evolved into this stage..." Zoe muttered to herself, not listening to what Tintin had said.

"That's just Silence's personal AI assistant, AI stands for Artificial Intelligence, in case you're wondering. His name is Jaimes. In short for Just An Intelligent Mechanism. The 'MES' are all clumped in the last word," Royce explained to the confused pair. "Yes, Tintin. It just spoke, because he can. Zoe, apparently you need to update your knowledge in this field." He addressed the both of them and answered their questions and confusions, before returning his attention to the screens.

"Oh," Tintin said, feeling speechless as he looked at Silence. It is the 21st century, anything could happen. Zoe grunted at the answer she had received. AI was not her field of experience, after all!

"Analyse the data," Silence ordered, but her hands was not idling around, either. She sorted out pictures and sound data from the middle clump, the pictures to the left side of the screen and the sounds to the right with her hands. The data shifted around screen to screen just by a swing of Silence's hands. It fascinated Tintin and Zoe a lot. The AI started working on the pictures.

_"The place you're looking for is Prison Island."_

"Yes, we already know that, Jaimes. Do make out more clues, will you? Like the weakest and strongest security point or something," Silence said, busying her hands through a stack of improperly composed sound data. She adjusted the time frames while listened to Jaimes' analysis.

_"Weakest security point would be the junkyard. There is a crack on the wall, and the possible way to break into there is to bomb the walls, although that is not really advisable, because it would attract unnecessary attention. Why are you asking for these, anyway?"_

"Don't talk back, Jaimes."

_"You programmed me to. The strongest security point would be the 'Heavy Crimes' prison gates. The another equally dangerous spot would be the bridge connecting it to the main land."_

"How could we break into there without using any explosives?" Silence asked, as if she was talking about visiting an old friend.

"Break into there?" Tintin asked incredulously, sitting up straight in his seat. "That's insane."

"Says the one who exploded a whole dam," Royce commented.

"That's not me! That's Captain Haddock!" Tintin protested, and Zoe turned to look at him with sparkly eyes.

"So that sea captain wasn't lying! He _did_blew up that dam back in Bagghar!" Zoe said excitedly, nearly leaped up in excitement if Jaimes did not interrupt their conversation.

_"In my conscience, I do not remember you taking any guests except Mister Royce, my lady,"_ Jaimes said in a rather annoyed tone.

"That's a sign to shut up," Royce sang in a low whisper. Both Tintin and Zoe grunted as they sunk their behinds into their respective chairs.

_"As for the break in, I would suggest using the underwater approach to reach the huge water pipes. Water pressure is lowest in midnight, and swimming through the pipes would be easier compared to daytime."_

"I don't want to get wet. Plus, my guests over here would bring over some equipment with them during the break in, I don't want to slow them down."

_"Then I would propose that you could get in by air. Jump off from a plane, land into the prison with the help of a parachute. I could pinpoint a few handy landing spots for you, but they would not be very strategic, whatever your plan is."_

"You haven't heard of our plan, don't judge."

_"I'm sorry, my lady, but it seems that you lot are planning to search for a person named Madame Raven."_

"Yeah, what about her? You done going through all of the data?" At this point, Silence was already back on her chair, staring at the screens as she made a conversation with her AI.

_"Madame Raven... She was not somebody to be underestimated, in my opinion."_

"Why so?"

_"The call, if tracked generally, the location would be Prison Island. But to be exact, it was coming from inside one of the prison cells. Heavy Crimes."_

All of them present in the room - with the exclusion of Jaimes - were shocked at this piece of news, with Royce having the most shock.

"We... We can't go there," Royce muttered.

"What, cat got your courage?" Zoe shot back, staring at the pictures of how the Heavy Crimes cells on the screen. Some of the inmates' vengeful eyes reminded her of her own brother, Vince Flynn. The memory of her brother burning down their father's lab sent huge waves of emotions across her. She never got to know where her brother was imprisoned - she and her mother was still running from the Service, and a chance to check the news was scarce until the Service had gave up on their trail. These memories reminded her of the reason she was all hot on this serial murder. She shut off the memories quickly, determined to close off the emotions and distractions as well, focusing on the landscape of the Heavy Crimes cells.

If Madame Raven was in there, she might as well memorize the potential battlefield.

"Nobody gets anything in those cells," muttered Silence.

_"That is why this Madame Raven you lot are searching for is extremely dangerous. She could answer calls in a Heavy Crimes cell where you're not to use any communication devices."_

"I have a question," Tintin asked. "How could she take out all these murders when she is in prison?"

"An outsider – one of her many henchmen – could do it," Royce said, having only one person in mind when he said this. _If I was not mistaken, and it was really _him _who was carrying out Raven's orders, the death of the 13th victim would be near._

"Okay, screw this. Whoever this Madame Raven is, we could only get more clues by getting to her, right? So, you guys will enter Prison Island by air," Silence decided, turning her chair to face Royce, Zoe and Tintin.

"What about you?" Tintin asked, noticing that she had said 'you guys' instead of 'we'.

"Good verbal observation, Tintin," Silence complimented, and Tintin went pink around the cheeks. Getting praised by a beautiful superagent was not an everyday thing for the young journalist. "I will be entering as myself."

"Which means?" Tintin continued asking.

"I'll be entering as Silence, a.k.a Senior Field Detective Inspector of Interpol," Silence said, a proud smile on her face. She secretly loved it whenever she heard her title, although it was quite a mouthful.

"Wow," Tintin's face looked nothing except for the sudden respect for the woman in front of her. Silence's smile grew wider.

"Loved the title, right?" Silence asked, and did not wait for an answer as she continued. "I'll drive into there via the bridge, maybe pull some ranks, and we'll see where we can rendezvous."

" 'We'll see where we can rendezvous'? Silence, don't tell me that you don't have a plan. Plus, how can we go in via parachute in broad daylight?" Zoe questioned. "Surely you can't go in there by midnight! People would get suspicious."

"Then let them be," Silence answered calmly, playing with a ballpoint pen in between her fingers. "In fact, I could help you all. I can be a demanding and loud officer and attract most of the guards' attention while you guys drop your behinds in the prison."

"That should work," Royce finally said something after recovering from the shock while Zoe fell silent at Silence's explanation. "Jaimes, could you print a copy of the rough sketch of Prison Island's map? Thank you."

_"Anything for you as well, sir."_

A whirring sound indicated that a printer is working somewhere. But there was not a single one in Silence's office. Tintin and Zoe shuddered in slight horror, but then some of the books on the bookshelves was pushed away to reveal a paper. On the paper was the map of Prison Island. Tintin was sure he does not want to know what secrets the bookshelves hold. It could be too much for him to handle.

Royce took over the map, and laid it on Silence's table. All of them crowded around him.

_"This was just a prediction of the insides, and I hope it would be of much help, because I cannot hack into the files of Prison Island. The suitable landing locations were circled and the Heavy Crimes cells were shaded."_

"It's okay, don't apologize for that," Silence said. "Thank you for your help, Jaimes. Help yourself to anything, my treat. Oh, and keep a backup for all the files over there."

_"You know I don't really need anything, my lady,"_ Jaimes said, and a sound similar to a sigh can be heard from the AI. _"I'm just a machine. A talking AI."_

"You're more than that." With Silence's words hanging around the room, Jaimes shut himself down, the screens slowly fading from sight.

"He is very human," Tintin said, looking at the empty space where the screens had disappeared.

"Because he is mine," Silence said, and looked at the map in front of them, directing Tintin's attention back to their task on hand. "So, I will enter Prison Island by this bridge." Using an orange highlighter, she drew a straight line on the bridge, ending with two strokes like an arrow's tip at the prison gate.

"We will land at either here, here, or here," Pointing at three different locations which were separated quite some distance from each other, Royce decided on the circle that was furthest from the gate. "The guards won't notice us from here. It's the furthest."

"But look at this," Tintin said, taking hold of a pencil as well, and drew a straight line from where Silence had stopped, straight into the shaded area, which was the Heavy Crimes cells. "Even if Silence had managed to enter here, how are we going to do that?"

"And don't forget, we have guard towers," Tintin said, ticking at the small tower posts that was surrounding the Heavy Crimes building. "Unless Zoe has some gadgets that could take them all out in one shot, I don't think we could stand a chance."

"We could, you know," said Zoe.

"How?" All three of them turned to look at the inventor. She took a blue pen, and noted the two main buildings that were built beside the Heavy Crimes building, as well as the huge space in front of the three buildings. "These two would be the normal cells. This space should be their playground. And this…" Zoe said and circled at a small piece of land at the edge of the Island. "Bets that this is the junkyard Jaimes was talking about."

"Yeah, what about that?" Royce asked.

"The weakest security is at the junkyard," Tintin said in a whisper, tensing the atmosphere around the quadruplet.

"I suggest that we find a way to gather the inmates to that huge ground, then we bomb the walls, and…"

"The inmates will rush to that sound." Tintin said, continuing Zoe's sentence.

"And they realize that the wall is no longer there." It was Royce's turn.

"Then they will attempt for an escape." Silence said, her eyes widening from realization of what Zoe was implying. "Flynn, are you seriously suggesting that…"

"We could stage a rebel," Zoe said. "Well, to keep the guards busy as we search for Madame Raven's cell, anyway. Do you want me to prepare some boats for them at the other side of the wall? I could ring up some useful contacts…"

"No can do! They're law offenders, and I don't want them to be free outside the law," Silence said, her eyes still glazed with Zoe's suggestion. Zoe shot Royce a meaningful glance after Silence's sentence.

"Okay, so that sums up of what we're going to do," Tintin said, and thought of two details that he had yet asked of. "When are we doing this? And how are we going to get a plane?"

"We'll carry this plan out tomorrow, that will give us some time to get prepared," Silence said, and they were unaware that Silence had already taken up the role of the leader in this plan, not even Silence herself realized that; she had been leading a huge amount of police force in her life for years, and old habits die hard. Besides, Tintin, Zoe and Royce were not complaining.

"As for the planes…" Silence said, and Royce shot his hand up in the air, like an eager school kid who has the perfect answers for the questions asked by the teacher.

"Ooh, ooh! I have a helicopter! I could ask Chris to drive it back home after we had made our jump!" Royce said, and was grinning with delight after he had finished. Silence nodded in approval.

"Any questions?" Silence asked one more time, and they all shook their heads, approving of the plan.

"Great. Class dismissed."

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><p><strong>NOTE: EDITED CHAPTER 7 AND 8 REGARDING CAPTAIN HADDOCK'S PART!<strong>

**NOTE 2: The Secret of the Unicorn's DVD was out, and my mum bought it for me! A very pleasant surprise for me when I came back from my extra classes! MUM, I LOVE YOU! **

**And I spent that night drooling at the adorableness that is Tintin.**

**~Velonica Sushi**


	13. Chapter 13

**Thanks to PaleMist and yeong-wonhan gang for adding this story into your alerts!**

**Review reply to Luna's World: Thank you! Who wouldn't love Tintin? He's just so adorable and everything nice! Aww! One of my ambitions is to be a spy but I don't know where to start! Or a detective would be awesome too :D Thanks for reviewing!**

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><p><em><strong>"Friends"<strong>_

Tintin woke up the next day feeling extremely hungry. After being sent home by Royce late at night yesterday, he had hit the bed before he could gather up the strength to eat a proper dinner, with Snowy curling up next to him on his bed. He needed a scrumptious breakfast right now. Tintin walked down from his apartment after changing into his casual clothes, walking on foot towards the nearest Chinese dim sum place. He sent Zoe a text along the way when Snowy's attention was taken away by a fluttering butterfly.

_"Do you need some breakfast?"_

_"Yes."_

Tintin packed some dumplings for Zoe, ate quite a lot of steam buns himself, not forgetting to feed Snowy some of the warm, delicious insides of the bun, before he set off for home. He wanted to pass Zoe's breakfast to her personally, but Shady was the one who came out from his own personal door to take the inventor's breakfast, holding several notes in his mouth. Snowy was excited to see Shady, for he immediately pounced at the black and white cat the moment he appeared through the door. But the cat was more agile, and it leapt out of Snowy's reach with a swift twist of its hind legs.

Tintin took over the cash, passing the packed breakfast to Shady, who carefully held the plastic in between his teeth. Tintin counted the cash, and at the last one had a Post-It stuck on it.

_"Keep the change."_

Tintin wondered what Zoe was up to at this early time of day. The sneak-in was not until the night!

He went back to his unit, only stopping to call Snowy, who was eager to play with Shady who was looking that he could tear the terrier into pieces if his mouth was not occupied.

"Come on, Snowy!" Tintin called out, and the white dog gave Shady's face a huge, wet lick before trotting back to his owner. Shady growled, and disappeared behind the small door of Zoe's apartment door.

Tintin plopped himself down on his laptop, opening a Word document as he began to fill in pieces of this story.

_"Bloody Mary. It is originally a game for the brave to see ghosts. In this case, it is the code name for the killer responsible for the serial murders that were happening around the city. So far, the only connection between them was that they sported handsome features."_

Tintin got stuck after that sentence, and while he was brainstorming for the next sentence, he received a text message from Zoe.

_"I got something for you."_

Tintin and Snowy got up to Zoe's apartment and swung the door open, knowing that she would have got it unlocked if she was expecting him. There was nothing wrong with her house, no messy stuff piling up somewhere it should not belong. But the owner of this unit was not in sight. Nor did her pet.

"Zoe?" Tintin called out to her, peering into the kitchen for any signs of the inventor. Nobody was there. He turned his head away from the kitchen back to the living room, and there she was, standing just behind the journalist, her pet beside her feet. Zoe's sudden appearance took Tintin by surprise. She was so quiet; he did not even hear her sneaking up behind him.

"Surprise!" Zoe beamed at Tintin when their eyes meet. Snowy and Shady were already struggling against each other, rolling around on the tiled floor of Zoe's living room. "I got you a silencer. Thought you might need some weapons tonight." Said Zoe, balancing a gun at the tip and the end with her palms.

"Wow… Thanks," Tintin said as he took over the gun in her hands. It felt light in his grasp, the grip of the gun resting comfortably against his palm. Tintin decided that he would like that gun a lot, although the idea of shooting somebody was against his better nature. "What are you using, then?"

"Me? Well, just the usual. Anything that can be stuffed into my shirt and pants pockets," Zoe said, grinning up at Tintin. "Wouldn't want to slow myself down in a dangerous place."

**xXx**

Royce had rung and told Tintin and Zoe that he will reach their apartment by 9pm sharp. Tintin had dressed in a sweater and long pants with a pair of sturdy looking boots, the silencer tucked safely in his sides. He also brought along another pair of gun, the one he used to defend himself when Barnaby Dawes paid him a visit late at night. Tintin took pride in his shooting – taking down a seaplane with only a shot to the engine was no easy feat – but he could never had the right techniques or strength to use anything else.

As for Zoe, she was dressed in a hooded jacket with a black singlet underneath to shield herself from the chilly air, and a pair of jeans which was washed so many times, the fabric itself looked less sturdy from when it was bought. But it still served its purpose, Zoe thought. She had packed bags of electronic gate disablers in the inside pockets of her jacket, and a whip safely rolled and tucked in the pocket of her jeans. She had a small knife somewhere, and she doubted its ability, but she brought it along anyway.

Snowy and Shady stood beside their owners, leaning close against each other once in a while when the wind blows at them occasionally.

"Going all macho for this operation?" Zoe asked as she stood besides Tintin on the pavement. "I don't see you bringing a lot of weapons."

"There are two guns on me, with three magazines as reloads, if you are counting that as a weapon," Tintin said, looking forward as he tried to make a neutral face to conceal the fact that he was armored. "And your silencer had no reloads."

"You don't need that," Zoe said, rubbing her hands together to produce some heat. "I read about your story. You have amazing shooting skills, don't you?" She huffed warm air into her warm hands, pressing them against the side of her face. It was bliss against this cold weather.

Tintin's face blushed ever so slightly at her compliment. "Most of them are just luck, really."

"Don't be humble."

"Well, people was always noticing stuff like how I have the wits to outsmart villains, how I have the bravery to stand up against someone, how I could drive any single transportation the world has to offer, even how I could write amazing stories for the world to see. You're the first one to notice… insignificant stuff like that." Tintin said, his words lingering in the air before he noticed that he was probably boasting about his abilities. "No, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to…"

"You call having a perfect aim with a gun 'insignificant'? What has this world turn into?" Zoe questioned, the admiration in her words was cleverly hidden. "Guess I just made it into your list of worthy fans, being able to notice something like that."

"I would prefer it if you're my _friend_ instead of a fan," said Tintin, an idea taking over his mind at that moment. "Do you think it's okay if we could, you know, make our own brotherly fist bump?"

"Why so sudden?" Zoe asked, but the idea of a bro fist was fun. Plus it was a signal of friendship, something that could strengthen their relationship. It was so long since she had a friend, and she was determined to keep this one close to her. "But I guess its okay."

A boyish smile went up Tintin's face. He balled his right fist, Zoe doing the same as well. Tintin knocked the top of Zoe's fist, and then she did the same to Tintin's fist. The fists then come together to knock side by side, and while they're pulling away from each other, Tintin made a slow motion of combing his standing tuft of hair in a handsome sweep with the hand which had just fistbumped with Zoe. As for the inventor, she makes a flip of her ponytail in a mock fabulous way, and the both of them laughed at themselves, at each other, at the blooming of a friendship.

"We're both fabulous, shining vampires with hair shampoo contracts," said Zoe in between laughs, and the both of them doubled over, startling their snuggling pets, but not passerbys. To them, they looked like a couple, or two best friends, sharing a funny joke. But to Snowy and Shady, laughing humans do not have the same meaning as sane. Both the cat and the dog looked up at Tintin and Zoe, and it took the laughing duo a while to notice their pets' confusion.

"It's nothing, Snowy. We're just laughing over something funny," Tintin said, ruffling the fur on the head of his terrier.

"Maybe they're thinking that we're crazy," Zoe said, staring down at Shady who stared back at her. She broke the connection a short while later, and looked up at the dark sky, not a single star in sight.

"If we're not going to Prison Island, this would be a good night," Zoe sighed. "It's been a while since I had some actual fun with other people."

"You should come out from your personal fortress often," Tintin suggested. "It is going to smell of loneliness and rotten food."

"Yeah, totally. You're making me wonder where I stashed my chips."

"I don't want to know."

"Well, you should, you know. Just in case I can't make it back here…" Zoe stopped, the weight of the sentence dropping between the both of them.

"If we're going there together, then we're going to come back together, either dead or alive, you hear me?" Tintin said sternly, his eyes concentrating on the cars driving back and forth on the road. "I'm your friend, and I won't let anything happen to you."

"Thanks, but it's just… The thought of facing…"

This would have been a moment, but Royce had the best and the worst timing of all. His jet black sports car stopped in front of them, and his face was revealed after the heavily tinted window of his car was scrolled down.

"Yo! I hope I wasn't making you lovebirds waiting in the cold!" Royce yelled, popping the door to his car open with the pressing of a few buttons from the inside of his car. "Come, hope on! Silence is going to mince me along with her stash of human meat if we're late!"

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><p><strong>Early update!<strong>

**Because I will be very busy this Saturday.. I have to attend this cross country race, and then probably watch The Hunger Games :D**

**~Velonica Sushi**


	14. Chapter 14

**Review reply to comedywizard: It's okay! :) Ahahah I just like messing around with the both of them XD I will, dear. I will :D**

**Review reply to Luna's World: Thank you! I enjoyed writing this chapter as well! I made my own record, but I did not won that race. And my muscles are hurting now. OUCH. You bet I will, girl! Writing is probably the only thing I could do anyway :3**

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><p><em><strong>"Preparations."<strong>_

The journey down to Royce's mansion was a long one, with the awkward and tense atmosphere hanging in the air between Tintin and Zoe. Shady and Snowy were curled up on their owner's laps. Royce was singing along to the songs on the radio, creating perfect versions of spinoffs of most of the songs. This was the first time they had heard him sing, and Tintin had to admit that Royce had a nice vocal cord. It was better than him, anyway. The last time Tintin tried to sing, he had… Let's just say it did not go very well.

Royce had sensed the tension between the duos the moment they were in his car. He tried to ease the awkwardness that was gnawing into the three of them by singing, before briefing them with the night's mission.

"We're going to land on the roof of the cafeteria. Chris is getting the helicopter ready, and Silence was already making the final preparations. Are both of you ready for this?"

They nodded silently at the back seat, looking out to the rolling scenery from their respective windows. The dark buildings give way to quiet houses, and they had reached Royce's mansion before they even realize it.

The huge metal gates of Royce's mansion folded sideways in a neat fashion with a press of the button from the inside of Royce's car, welcoming them into the mansion. The gates slowly stretched themselves back while Royce headed straight for the huge garden behind his mansion, where a helicopter awaits the arrival of the three of them.

"Come on, chop chop, we don't have all night!" Royce parked his car in his garage, which was facing the garden, and hurried all of them to the helicopter. They broke into a small run, the wind coming from the strong whirring of the helicopter blades blew against them, sending their hair blowing in different directions. Zoe's hair and Snowy's fur was messy by the time they got into the aircraft. Royce took a seat beside Chris at the front, who was rapidly mashing away on one of the huge red button on the dashboard with his right hand while his left concentrated on a green one.

"Hey, Chris." Royce greeted his friend, flicking several switches on, pulling on a lever to lock the doors when he confirmed that Tintin and Zoe and their little companions had entered the helicopter. "Stop playing with that, come help me."

Chris had a different outfit compared to the one he wore when he introduced himself to Tintin and Zoe. His flaming red hair was still in a ponytail, and he had a tight grey outfit with long sleeves and long pants that was a match with it. He still looked dazzling, but Zoe felt weird seeing him without his expensive suit. Oh well, it is a mission, and wearing suits to a mission is only affordable on the movies.

Chris gave one final press on both buttons with his fingers, reluctant to leave what seemed his only entertainment on the helicopter.

"It doesn't actually do anything, would it?" Zoe asked. She already had an answer, she just needed confirmation. If they were buttons to anything on the plane, they must be malfunctioning, for Chris looked like he had been tapping on them the moment he had the craft ready. Chris shook his head.

"It's pretty obvious, isn't it?" Chris asked, finally stopping his abuse on both red and green buttons. The tip of his fingers who were pressing on the buttons had turned a soft red, but Chris took no notice at it. "Green for mean, red for dead. Green triggers the machine guns, and the red releases bombs."

Zoe and Tintin were frozen to their spots. _Machine guns? Bombs?_

Looks like there was more than meets the eye.

"And that is why I will not let you be in charge of the weapons, Chris. You'll kill anyone you see." Royce rattled a bunch of keys in his hand, creating a series of jingling sounds as he turned his head back towards the back seat to face Tintin and Zoe. "I locked the buttons with one of these keys, so it's absolutely safe. He'll get them over my dead body."

"I hope I could have the pleasure of killing you." Chris grumbled.

"Too bad it won't." Royce grinned, stuffing the keys back into the pocket of his jeans. "Are both of you ready for this, Tintin? Zoe?" He finds himself asking the same question again, but the previous one was unintentional, like adding decorations to a dish. This one brings an even more serious tone in it.

"Yes." Both of them answered in unison, voices like trained soldiers. A small smile was exchanged between them. If there was a time for any kind of last smiles, this would be it.

"Then we're…" Royce announced, sending the helicopter in the air with a tug of the steering analog. "…on air!"

The temporary weightlessness caught Zoe's heart for a few moments, but Tintin was not affected by it. He had drove planes before, this was nothing. Zoe's heart got stuck in her chest, but it resumed beating when Royce had made the plane stable on air.

"Okay, Chris. Take the wheel." Royce ordered, and changed the setting of the helicopter for Chris to fly them to Prison Island. Royce turned his chair around – the journalist/inventor pair did not know about that function – and addressed the both of them. "Got enough weapons on you?"

"I think so…" said Zoe, rechecking her pockets for electronic gate disablers and the whip in her pocket. The small pocket knife was ignored. Tintin took out his silencer and gun, as well as the reload magazines.

"This could do," said Royce, taking the map of Prison Island and spread it out in front of him. Tintin and Zoe moved closer to see what he has to say. "So, I have already assigned roles for all of us. First, Silence will distract the guards and some of the ranked officials inside, that's done. Next, Tintin?"

"Yes."

"You will take down the four guards on the guard towers. Zoe?"

"At your service."

"You will free the prisoners, since that was your idea."

Zoe shrugged. "Easiest task, I presume."

"Not quite. The place itself is as dangerous as durians." Royce said. "As for me, I'll have the honor of putting the bombs in the junkyard."

Just as Royce was about to say some more, a beeping rang around the aircraft. Royce looked at the dash, where an orange light was blinking. "That's Silence, pick it up and go on loudspeaker, Chris."

Chris did as ordered, and the whole helicopter was turned into a huge speaker.

"Cameron. Are you there?"

"How could you ask obvious questions like this when you're already dialing my helicopter number, darling?" Royce teased.

"Don't joke around, Royce. Who knows, maybe some fearless bastard finally got the nerves to sneak into your house and steal your helicopter away?" Silence said, and let out a sound which was a mix between a stifled laugh and a snigger.

"You know, I like it when you do that," Royce said, his voice gentle and smooth. Tintin was right to assume that Royce had a very fine vocal cord.

"Do what?" Silence asked, unable to keep the annoyance out of her voice.

"Talk to me as an equal. Like friends." Royce put his right index finger on his lips, signaling for Tintin and Zoe to keep quiet for a moment as he made conversation with Silence. They were unsure if they really had to listen to this whole conversation. Zoe was interested with this little exchange between Royce and Silence, since this woman is the only one who could bring out her friend's better side. Tintin was new to Zoe, to Royce, and to Silence. Of course, a harmless overheard will not hurt anyone, but Tintin hated having too much information when it comes to private matters. But he chose to listen to it, anyway. It was on loudspeaker, and avoiding it is useless.

"We're not friends." These three words sounded forced, coming from Silence. Zoe thought Silence would shrug it off casually, since she never gave any extra damns about what Royce did. "We've been together for so long, and I am still your _friend_, after all these years?"

_Together?_

It took Tintin and Zoe a lot of restraint to not yell out loud. Zoe had known Royce for years, and as far as she had known, he preferred the free world instead of a world bounded down by anything, including romance. Tintin just could not get it into his head. They had acted like friends together, how could they be lovers?

A happy look passed Royce's face. "Honey, if you're finally considering an official paper as proof of our relationship, I would be happy to propose…"

"Idiot, what the hell are you on about?" Silence howled from the other side of the phone. The flustered tone was not well hidden. "I'm not saying… Oh God, what have I said? What I meant was, after all these long years of tolerating your childish interference on my crime scenes and the break ins into my house, I'm still your friend? I deserve a medal that says 'Best Friend Award'!"

Both Tintin and Zoe smiled. Who would have thought this Interpol officer had such a side?

"But I don't want to be friendzoned!" Royce whined.

"Put it in your juice box and suck on it." Silence grumbled, and changed the subject. "How's things over there? Are Tintin and Zoe doing well?"

"They're fantastic, Silence. Who would have known our little journalist had a few weapons up his sleeve? Maybe next time you have to raid his house and charge him for owning a few weapons!"

"If that was my division, the first house I'll search was yours." Silence replied, and reported her own status to Royce. "I have already made the necessary precautions as well as the members who will come to our aid if Raven proved to be a hard bitch. Just remember to give the young ones those Distress Flares."

Zoe blinked and Tintin gaped at Silence's single foul word. They did not regret having to listen to this conversation. It reveals so much of Silence's hidden side as well, Zoe thought. Looks like the relationship between Royce and Silence is not simple.

"Sweetcake, I think the kids heard you."

"Kids? What are you talking abo… Holy macaroni shiitake mushrooms you turned on the loudspeaker? Cameron you are so dead, you piece of… bull leaving! Tintin, Zoe, just… ARGH! Screw this, Cameron! After this mission, I am SO going to add you into my collection of human meat!"

They laughed at Silence's embarrassment, with Royce having the loudest laugh.

"I told you she has those meat stashed somewhere!" Royce said between laughs, and Silence just growled before she hung up. After the laughing subsided, Zoe noticed that Chris was not even following the conversation at all. He was back to the useless buttons.

Royce was panting for air, and he got some after a few minutes later, when a text message came into his phone and he had to calm himself down to read it.

_"ETA in 30 minutes. - TS"_

Royce turned back to face the Chris. "What was our estimated time of arrival?"

"45 minutes." Chris replied.

_"ETA 45. - RC" _Royce texted back, and returned his focus to the plan.

"It's 2145 now. We'll reach there around 2230. What should be our rendezvous time?" Royce asked. "I'm thinking 2315 would be perfect. 45 minutes to get used to the landscape and finish our tasks."

"Can I suggest 0000? One hour and a half. I need time to convince two blocks of inmates to be orderly instead of barging out at the moment I unlocked the doors." Zoe suggested.

"One hour. 2330. I'll help you with the convincing." Royce said, all business and no play.

"Deal. Tintin, are you okay with this?"

"You guys had your say, I don't think I need one."

"Oh, come on. Sorry we left you out of the conversation." Zoe apologized, and patted Tintin's hand with her own.

"It's okay, I could work with any time. Taking out four guards in towers is easy."

"You've did it before?" Royce asked, raising an eyebrow in suspicion.

"Nope, why?"

"If it's your first time in something, don't ever underestimate it." Royce gave Tintin a piece of advice. "Zoe, I'll help you with block B." Block B was the regular prison cells at the right side of the Heavy Crimes cells on the map. "And then we'll meet at Heavy Crimes with Silence after I had set off the bomb and started the chaos. Is that clear?"

"Clear." They answered in unison once again.

"Okay then. I think we're finished for the night. Say your final prayers for we're stepping into a game of death!"

* * *

><p><strong>I'm sorry I don't know anything about driving a helicopter! I made all of them up!<strong>

**This is... um, sort of lengthy? I tend to drag stuff and drift off the plot sometimes...**

**About the rating, I don't know if it was supposed to change because of the swear word... Plus I'm going to add some really gore stuff later on. Suggestions anyone?**

**~Velonica Sushi**


	15. Chapter 15

**Thanks to Tammifire for adding this story into your favorites!**

**Thanks to Tammifire for adding this story into your alerts!**

* * *

><p><strong>"<em>Pre-Infiltration<em>"**

"Oh yeah, the Distress Flames," Immediately after announcing their probable task of minimum chance of survival, Royce was reminded of something, and fished out two palm-sized tubes from the large-sized metal box of stuff, which Royce claimed to have stashed 'emergency gear' in it. The tubes were red in color, and when it was passed to both Tintin and Zoe, they felt quite some weight in it. "Packed with explosives, this baby. A very useful object to send an SOS for the Interpol helicopters because the pattern and the flames in this was been made to look exactly like the Interpol's distress signal."

Zoe looked at the tube in her hand. It looked like a TNT, but she could not be too sure about anything. Tintin, on the other hand, who had crossovers with explosives before, thought that whatever was in his hand right now was not something to fool around with.

"You can light this up just by rubbing it against the floor," said Royce, indicating the white side of the tube as he speak. "It'll go right off within 5 seconds into the sky, and an Interpol helicopter will come to ship you to safety!"

Snowy sniffed the white end of the tube. "This doesn't smell nice." Snowy thought. "I wonder what was in it. Maybe if I could lick at it…" Just as Snowy let his pinkish tongue out to touch the tube, Shady leapt from Zoe's lap to Tintin's, and clawed at Snowy's tongue. The terrier winced in pain. "What was that for, Shady?" Snowy barked.

"That was not meant to be licked." Shady grunted. "That's the problem with dogs. They just lick everything they see. That's unhygienic and dangerous." Shady scoffed and turned around, returning to the warm curves of Zoe's lap.

"What about you, Royce?" Zoe asked, weighing the tube in her hand, thinking of where to put this extremely dangerous thing that goes off via friction. "Do you have one?"

"Unfortunately, the ones we could manage was only two of them, and since you and Tintin were inexperienced – sorry about that, Tintin. I knew about the epic adventures you've had, but it is our decision – we had decided to pass the two of them to the both of you. Just in case anything happens." Royce bears a serious expression while he was saying that, and Zoe could not find the courage to let him down. After all, they were best friends, and she knows that Royce really cares about her safety.

"I can't. We need maximum assurance that everyone will get out of there safe." Tintin pushed back the tube at Royce's direction, insisting that Royce must keep it as a means of safety precaution. "Since it's going to be a helicopter that rushes to our rescue, that means it could take on more than one person, isn't it?" Receiving no arguments or comebacks from Royce, Tintin pushed on. "So I need you to take that, Royce. For you and Silence."

Tintin's move moved Royce in his core. He could actually feel something stinging at the corner of his eye. It was no drama, either. He always puts other people's wellbeing above his, and could always manage to keep himself in pieces at the end of the day, which was the reason everybody around him trusted him to make decisions, especially about splitting resources. Zoe was one of the people, after many years of befriending him. Tintin was not a close friend, so he knows nothing about how Royce works, and he is just simply acting out of pure concern. This was what triggered the little emotional case in Royce.

"Thanks," was the answer that Royce managed to muster, after all the emotions going through him.

"You're most welcomed. Now, I was wondering if you got any flashlights with you in your 'emergency gear' box. I will need it to distract the guards at the four towers surrounding the Heavy Crimes cell." Tintin asked, and Royce dived his head into the stuffed box for Tintin's request. After a short while, Royce resurfaced with a black colored one.

"Fully charged," said Royce, flashing the light on Tintin's face. The journalist darted his eyes away from the extreme light, as well as Snowy.

"Ah! The light! It's blinding!" Snowy thought as he is covering his eyes with his front paw.

"Okay, I think we have had enough of that flashlight, Royce," Zoe, who was sitting just besides Tintin, got affected by the flash of light, too. "It looks like a second sun!"

"Humans and their way of manipulating matter in space." Shady grunted, shifting his head away to avoid from staring directly at the light source.

"Here you go," Royce tossed the flashlight to Tintin in a small arc. The journalist caught it without fail. He had decided to let the glorious job of holding the flashlight to Snowy. The white terrier immediately took a liking to the flashlight, chewing it in between his teeth.

Zoe looked at the clock on Royce's helicopter. 2225. Only 5 minutes to their jump. She felt nervous all of a sudden, the idea of jumping off a helicopter a lot of meters high from the ground turned unappealing to her. To her, heights are not a problem. The problem was she had never attempted, or tried to use a parachute for years. The last time she had used it, she was only 18. She is 22 now. Why did she not think of this earlier?

To ease off her jumpiness, she reached into her jacket, and found the small, loaded glass dice, which was sealed into the small inside pocket against her chest. Taking it out, the familiar weight and curves of the dots that represent the numbers on the dice felt good in her fingers, and she lost herself while holding on to the temporary comfort. Tintin sneak a look at Zoe, and noticed the glass dice between her fingers. He had never seen the dice before. Is it another kind of weapon?

"One of your inventions?" Tintin asked, referring to the dice in Zoe's hand. She snapped out of her comfort circle, and she looked like she was struggling to tell Tintin the truth, for she hesitated.

"It was made by somebody really important to me. It isn't anything, but it helped me in lots of situations. I had it sealed off in this jacket, by means that I will not have to rely on it again, but I'd decided to wear this jacket with me on this task, knowing that I could use some comforting at some point during this night." Looking at Tintin's unreadable expression, Zoe continued. "I know, I'm probably a stupid, insecure girl to you."

"Oh come on. Everybody needs something to chill their minds. It isn't a big deal," swatting the fact that Zoe had preferred the dice better than him, Tintin looked out to the window. He noticed that the dim lights that surrounded Prison Island's perimeters were already in view. He nudged for Zoe to take a look as well, and the both of them were immediately fixated by the size of Prison Island, although it was a stranded prison surrounded by seas, with just a bridge connecting it to the mainland.

"Okay, quick. Put these on. It's our dress code to the most anticipated party of the year!" Royce resumed his cheerful tone, and thrust two parachutes into both Tintin and Zoe's hands. "We're the VIP guests; we wouldn't want the host to wait for us!"

Zoe slid the glass cube back into her chest pocket, and strapped the parachute behind her. Tintin did the same as well, and when it got stuck in the process of it, Royce offered to help Tintin. He took this opportunity to slide the Distress Flare into Tintin's pocket.

No matter what, he would still protect others before himself.

**xXx**

While the air team was preparing themselves for the jump, Silence was already at the gates of Prison Island. The guards stopped her car, insisting on a thorough check before she could enter the prison.

"It was just procedure, ma'am," said an armed, bulky guard as he looked around in Silence's white sports car for any suspicious stuff.

"Screw those procedures! I am the Senior Field Detective Inspector of Interpol! Why should I be treated as an equal?" Silence growled as she stepped through the metal detector, which blared when she did, and she was immediately pulled back by the guards. "What now?"

"We need to check if you have had any metal on you, ma'am," the guard on duty grunted as he scanned Silence's body with a scanner. It blinked at her waist.

"It's my car keys. What, that was qualified as a potential weapon now?"

"Standard procedure." The guards shrugged, feeling defeated, as he pulled out her keys from her pocket and tossed it into a small plastic basin, along with her metal earrings, necklaces, and her cell phone which she bought along to lengthen her time with the guards. "I would advise you to take out any other metal belongings, ma'am."

"Well, do I look like I parade around areas with freaking metal detectors? How should I know if I have _too many_ metals on me?" Silence retorted and rolled her eyes at the guards. They held back their urge to punch Silence in the face. She was one of the elites, and hitting elites would mean losing their jobs.

"No, ma'am. Sorry for the inconvenience, ma'am." The guard muttered under his own breath, and watched with lessened attention as Silence _finally _passed the metal detector without setting it off. Noticing that the guards had lowered their guard, Silence whispered to the modified hearing aid tucked behind her hair, on her ear.

"Tell me you're on your way."

As if on cue, the faint whirr of a helicopter was heard above Prison Island. The guards regard it as some private or commercial aircraft, but Silence knew exactly who was on the plane.

"As a matter of fact, we're going to jump right now!"

**xXx**

The jump did not take them much time. Zoe took longer than she had expected to make the leap, and Tintin had to offer his hand for her along the way down. Royce snorted at them, but they knew better than him that this was a gesture of support. Because a small support can make huge efforts.

Snowy got himself stuffed in a backpack behind Tintin, with Shady sharing the same fate in a similar backpack behind Zoe.

"This whole place is so stuffy and cramped!" Snowy thought.

"I just hope Snowy doesn't get suffocated in there." Shady thought, trying desperately to ease himself in a more comfortable spot in the bag. "It's not like I care for him or anything, but being the only animal in the group is boring."

Royce left the helicopter in Chris's care, and took the leap after Tintin and Zoe jumped down from the copter hand to hand. The red-haired man drove the helicopter away with glee.

They landed at the spot where Jaimes had suggested, but not as glorious and discreet as they had imagined. Tintin landed in a huge heap of mess, tangled in his parachute. Zoe's face met the rough ground of the Island, creating a light bruise on the left side of her face. Royce… somehow he managed to slam himself on the huge barrier wall that enclosed the whole prison, and not alert the guards or the inmates.

"Is everybody okay?" Tintin finally managed to untangle himself from the long ropes and huge canvasses. Zoe was rubbing at the side of her face, and Royce was walking wobbly, having a slight concussion from the hit on the wall. They raised their thumbs upward, and Tintin sighed, rather loudly, to himself.

_With our team like this, what are the chances of us getting out of here alive?_

* * *

><p><strong>So recently, there was this guy who likes me, he went all the way to get a Tintin book from his school's library for me.<strong>

**The Crab With The Golden Claws.**

**It was awesome! XD**

**I mean, I don't have any romantic feelings for him, but I'd certainly had a better impression for him now. :D**

**~Velonica Sushi**


	16. Chapter 16

**Thanks to Pink-Pencil-Girl303, YourLocalIgor and BlackDarkRose10 for adding this story into your favorites!**

**Thanks to BlackDarkRose10 and YourLocalIgor for adding this story into your alerts!**

* * *

><p><em><strong>"Impressed"<strong>_

At the very least, the trio was glad that they landed in Prison Island without alarming any guards. Tintin cut off Zoe's parachute and his with a knife, rolling the chute up in a huge bundle. "Any ideas on how we could dispose of them?" Tintin noted the nylon bunch in his arms.

"Give it to me, I'm going to the junkyard to install the bombs, I might as well help you throw them away," Royce rolled up his own parachute as well, and took over Tintin's, hugging the huge black chutes over his chest. He mumbled through the tangled chutes, "No hard feelings from now on. I think I'd better leave before you lot start bawling." The artist/hired assassin turned sharply on the heels, and disappeared at the general direction of the junkyard with nimble steps.

"He's right. No hard feelings," Zoe said, exhaling heavily before patting at Tintin's back. "I wish you luck."

"Thanks," was the word Tintin managed to say. His guts was telling him that this could go wrong in so many ways, plus a nagging voice kept telling him that one of them was going to die there. It is a prison, and aren't deaths normal in prison grounds?

"What's the matter? Stop looking so tensed!" Zoe noticed Tintin's uneasiness, attempted to make him feel better. "I mean, it's just a prison. Nothing could…" Realizing that she might as well suggest that Tintin broke into prisons as a hobby, she quickly altered her sentence. "Ah, what I meant was, nothing could really hurt you, isn't it? Come on, you survived a kidnap, a shipwreck, the Sahara, Haddock's breath, and even the Nightingale's singing! You're literally a Sparta, Tintin!"

"H…How did you know all that?"

"Your article, remember?"

"Thanks for the words of inspiration, Flynn. I definitely felt motivated by your words." Royce's sarcasm came up on both Tintin and Zoe's ears, which took them off guard. They instinctively reached their fingers to their ears. Something was attached on the inside of their ear – Tintin's is on the left and Zoe's on the right – which they did not bear any conscious of putting it on.

"I took the liberty to put these micro earpieces in your ears before you jumped off the helicopter. Fast and brilliant work, isn't it?" Ruffling sounds could be heard from Royce's side of the earpiece. "Praise me."

"Go somewhere else, Royce." Zoe rolled her eyes at her friend's move. She was impressed at how fast Royce's hands could work, but she would not encourage him.

"I already have," replied Royce cheekily. "Mind you, no lovey dovey talk over here. My darling Silence is online as well."

"Thanks."

"You and your sarcasm are most welcomed."

"Well, Tintin. Just… have it in mind that everything will be fine." Zoe said as a last reassurance, and she leaned forward to kiss Tintin's cheek. The sensation of warm lips against warm cheek lingered. "Return that in person the next time we meet."

"Seriously, Zoe? Since when did you get so corny?" Shady thought as he ran alongside his owner to the bushes near the prison cells. "Oh wait, don't answer that. I bet my catnip that it's Royce who passed that on to you."

Watching Zoe and Shady running out of sight, Tintin touched the side of the kissed cheek with his hand. "Snowy, what does that mean?"

"That means you're going to suck her in the cheek too, Tintin. Now, hurry to the towers!" Snowy thought, tugging at Tintin's pants and letting out a crooked whine at the four tall towers surrounding the Heavy Crimes cell. Tintin snapped out of his thoughts, hurriedly making his way to the towers.

**xXx**

_Time: 2233_

"Who is in charge?" asked Silence on the top of her voice when she reached the main office of Prison Island, located just above the canteen. "I demand to speak to the highest authority!"

"Which would be you and only you, darling," Royce said from his side of the earpiece as he connected wires to his timed bombs, sitting cross-legged on the floor, making himself as comfortable as possible while carrying out such a hard task.

Silence looked around the office - which had burst into life the moment she laid her orders – with an air of supreme as she gritted out the words "Shut up," under her breath. After much paging and delivering orders, the door of the supposed _highest authority_ swung open, revealing a bulky man who had twice the size of Silence's posture. He also had whitening hair and a strict expression, but that does not intimidate Silence at all. Correction, Silence _could not_ be intimidated by this man if she was to perfect her role as the bossy officer. "So I take it as you're the one in charge?"

The man stared straight at Silence.

"I am Senior Field Detective Inspector of Interpol, nicknamed Silence."

"Dave Jones."

"I am here for an inspection," declared Silence.

"I do not receive such orders."

"I don't think _my _presence had to be informed and approved by the higher ups," retorted Silence, crossing her arms as she glared at Dave. "Lead the way."

Nobody moved a muscle. Surrounding guards had fell silent as well.

"Lead."

"I refuse."

"Lead." Silence's temper and time is going to run out.

"Yeah, better get him moving."

_Could you shut up for once, Royce? _Silence howled in her mind.

"You do not deserve it." Dave pulled out a gun from his back pocket in a swift motion, attempting to aim it at Silence, but she was younger, and had faster, better reflexes. She snapped the magazine of the gun away from the body, pointing two handguns on Dave's forehead and the underside of his wrists. The other guards cocked their rifles and machine guns at Silence.

"Refuse to lead, and watch yourself bleed to death."

Out of Silence's expectation, Davy's expressionless face morphed into a smile, which evolved into a hoarse laugh.

"It has been years since somebody _actually_ threatened me, young lady."

"Pleasure is mine."

"I will have to praise your extraordinary moves for a midget like you." Shifting Silence's gun away from him, Dave patted imaginary dust off his uniform, straightening it with his scarred hands. "But you could do with more respect for old men like me."

"Heavy Crimes, please."

"_Pleasure is mine._"

**xXx**

_Time: 2235_

"Okay, Shady. Here's what I want you to do." Kneeling down near the bushes, Zoe took out a small packet of her electronic gate disablers in the inside pocket of her jacket, handing it over to Shady. "Can you stick all these on every door of the cell on Block B? I modified the packaging a bit so that you can reach into the disablers with your paws. If there are any leftover ones, hide them somewhere so that nobody could take it."

Shady looked at the packet. "Hmm. I guess it's okay. I'm itching for some real stuff to do instead of hanging around like useless companions!" He took over the packet with his mouth, and nodded at his owner. Zoe ruffled the top of Shady's head with a smile.

"I knew you're the best cat in the world!" Fishing out another packet of electronic gate disablers, Zoe looked at the distant Block A prison cells, a distant expression on her face. Before she took off, she kissed the top of Shady's furry head. "Love you, Shady."

"Ugh, the emotions human excrete when they're going to die." Shady watched as Zoe burst out from the bushes and sprinted towards the prison cells. It wasn't only later that he felt something resembled sadness welling up in him. "No, I have faith in Zoe. She will not die."

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><p><strong>This is slightly shorter, but I hope you all liked it! :)<strong>

**~Velonica Sushi**


	17. Chapter 17

**Thanks to animefreak721 and TheJewellersHand for adding this story into your alerts!**

**Thanks to justsomeguyyouknow and iKassy for adding this story into your favorites!**

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><p><strong><em>"A Change Of Plan"<em>**

_Time: 2235_

The four towers were easier to locate than Tintin had expected. He did not see it on his way down on the parachute, because the surrounding was too dark. Now that he was on ground level, he could see it clearly. It stood taller than every building in Prison Island, looming over them, serving as the guards, or the leaders, of all the buildings. Lights were turned off at the highest, as well as the only room on the towers. Although it was dark, Tintin could still make out the shadows of patrolling guards on the towers.

"Look at that, Snowy," Tintin mentioned the skyscrapers that would mean certain death if someone was to fell from it. "We gotta watch our footing up there."

"You bet," Snowy looked at the towers, wondering how they could withstand the strong wind with such a height.

"Come on, let's do this," Tintin headed towards the tower nearest to him, taking out the weighty flashlight as a means of defense. Nobody was guarding the entrance to the tower, that's a surprise for him. He ascended the spiraling stairs as quiet as possible, being careful to not make any sound. Snowy padded behind him, his paws making absolute silence as he trotted behind Tintin.

"Look, let's have a ninja walking contest! I'm sure I'll win!" Snowy was proud of himself, raising his head in the air with confidence as he went.

Tintin reached a closed door at the end of the stairs. He considered pushing it open, but what if it was old and had a creaky voice in between the rusty metals? Would he have enough time to take down the guard in time? Furthermore, how sure was him that the door will be unlocked? Tintin reached for his gun in his pocket, but before he could took it out, the door swung open by itself!

Tintin grabbed Snowy and made a quick swipe behind the door, making it in time to hide himself before the emerging guard could see him. Snowy got caught off guard, and whined when he was hauled off the ground.

"What was that?" The guards bellowed down to the stairs, and his own questioned echoed along the stairs, only fading after a few long seconds.

Tintin clamped Snowy's mouth with his hand, and he got so nervous that he nearly sank his fingers into Snowy's soft fur. He controlled his breathing, for he and the guard was less than an arm's length away.

"I swore I heard a mutt," the guard muttered to himself, turning around and was going to return to his guarding position. Snowy got offended by the guard.

"Oh no you didn't!" Snowy kicked away Tintin's grip on him, and bit the guard squarely in the butt, determined to draw blood from him.

"Aaarrrgghhh!" The guard yelled, and was going to rip Snowy off from him, but then a huge object whacked him right in the forehead. Stars was what he was going to see for the next few hours.

"Snowy! What are you doing?" Tintin asked as he pulled Snowy away from the guard, letting it bark at the unconscious man instead of hurting him even more.

"I'm just making my say for all the dogs," Snowy barked once more at the guard.

"Judging from his size and the reciprocal reflexes, I don't think tonight's guards will be challenging."

"Good. Take everyone down with your flashlight, Tintin." Zoe's voice came up on a small whisper from the earpiece. "We wouldn't want anybody innocent getting hurt."

"You know I'm on it." Tintin dragged the unconscious man back inside the room, and headed for the rest of the three towers.

**xXx**

_Time: 2240_

Zoe reached the prison cells, and had knocked out two guards at the front with her bare fists after distracting them towards one of the higher bushes. Her hand was drumming in pain, and she flailed it around in an attempt to ease the redness off it. She had not expected that a throw of a small stone would arouse the interest of the guards, leading them towards the ambush, and also a free pass to Wonderland. Zoe thought they would be harder, both mentally and physically.

"You would never imagine how vulnerable this prison is from the inside," Zoe grunted as she took out a gate disabler and stuck it to the main gate of the prison cells. It budged open with a small clank. The inmates who were still awake in the cell made careful steps to the cell bars that separated them from the long aisle to the front gate.

"Who's there?" Somebody took the initiative to shout out the question.

"I'm Batman, tell them that." Royce's voice came up from the receiver.

"My friend's Batman. I'm his sidekick. Preferably, Iron Man." Zoe said, and she heard somebody snigger from one of the cells. "What? We have a lot in common! Except that he has money and I don't have much."

"Quit the talking! Who are you?" Another voice yelled.

"I'm here to free all of you."

Despite the arousing chatters, grunts and scoffs, Zoe picked up another question. "Who sent you?"

"That's a secret." Zoe took out a handful of disablers, and began sticking them at each gate. "I need all of you to be quiet when I open your doors. I have people ready to blast off the wall at the junkyard. If all of you stay together, I assure you your freedom."

"Why are you doing this?"

"I told you, somebody sent me! Can't exactly know the man who employed me, can I? He paid me enough to shut my mouth and do my work." Zoe grunted and continued down the aisle. Just a few more cells….

And the alarms went off.

The alarms blared loudly throughout the Island, guards taking their positions and arming themselves with guns as they rushed to the prison cell Zoe was in.

"Who messed up?" Royce yelled through his earpiece.

"Me!" Zoe pulled out her whip, and made an arc at the nearest security camera, smashing it into pieces. "I forgot about the cameras!"

"So are you still saving our behinds, miss?"

"Damn sure I will!" Sticking the disablers at the last few doors, Zoe pressed the controller on her hand to finally activate all the pods. Every single door was clacked open. Inmates walked out from the room and looked at Zoe.

"Whoever sent you, we gave him, or her, our thanks." A huge, dark-skinned man thanked Zoe for what she had done.

"Zoe! Are you okay?" Tintin yelled through his earpiece.

"I'm okay, I'm okay!" Zoe yelled back, and gestured for all of them to get out from the building.

"Royce!"

"On it!" With a press of his detonator, a huge explosion came off.

"We're going to have a change of plan!"

* * *

><p><strong>Cliffhanger? :D<strong>

**~Velonica Sushi**


	18. Chapter 18

**Thanks to 12174le1, daughterofthering, **ColdnessOfLove** and Animeisnotmydivision for adding this story into your favourites!**

**Thanks to Animeisnotmydivision, Sokka-Mushroom, daughterofthering, Tracickles and ColdnessOfLove for adding this story into your alerts!**

_**Story so far:**_

**Zoe was a girl who met Tintin by chance through Bloody Mary, a case of serial killings who had taken twelve lives so far. She turned out to be more than just your average girl, and Tintin was soon dragged through a series of adventures while meeting Royce, a rich painter who had more talents than just drawing, Chris, Royce's half-butler, and Silence, a Senior Detective Inspector of Interpol. (Silence was her code name.) They had come across a clue which leads them to believe that the person behind the killings - a person who dubbed herself Madame Raven - was actually a prisoner in Prison Island, as the name suggests, a prison who was isolated from the main land. It was a mystery as to how she could conduct those murders while she was inside the prison, and the four of them was set to stop the death of the 13th victim.**

**While the four of them were breaking in into Prison Island, Zoe had made a mistake by not noticing the security cameras. It alerted the guards and now, they had a change of plans.**

**CHAPTER 18**

Having the fastest brains of them all, Royce immediately started barking orders to everyone on the team. "Everyone, just abandon what you're going and go to the Heavy Crimes section now! Security is going to be hot on our furry behind!" Tossing his unwanted gear into the sea, he kept only a few hand grenades and a pocket knife behind as his only defense.

Tintin, at the moment, was going to head towards the second tower when he heard Royce's command. Part of him wanted to ignore the elder man's command, but when he saw the remaining three towers lit up one by one, he decided that he would meet with the others at the specially guarded cells.

Meanwhile, Silence, who was with Dave, the bulky, nearly-veteran soldier who was in charge of Prison Island, was trying to figure out a way to knock him out when the alarm blared around the prison grounds. Dave's head shot up, alarmed, but before he could ask, or order anybody to find out what was going on, Silence knocked him behind the head. Hard.

She had expected him to pass out, but life isn't a movie. He was stunned, yes, but not knocked out. Two of his following guards raised their handguns, taking aim and fired at Silence. She swerved past the two bullets with ease, while in the process of doing it, she whipped out her own handgun and took two clean shots at both of their hearts. They were close to the cells now, and the gunshots had awakened the fire in some of the inmates, although the alarm had done most of the job.

Dave turned around and landed a huge fist on the side of Silence's face. "I _knew _you were something bad, _Detective Inspector_!" He watched as she struggled to get up. "I do not want to hurt a woman, but I think I might consider reviewing that strict rule of mine tonight, since you looked like you could put up a fight." With this, he fished out his brass knuckles, which looked sharp and lethal when he had put it on his fingers.

Silence gulped a little, trying to shake the dizziness out of her head. Her body acted before she could think properly, thanks to years of training, and she got her second weapon – a pair of nunchaku – in hand, already arming herself against the oncoming attack. The chains of her weapon rattled rather impatiently, itching for an attack.

The off-headedness had gone during the time Dave used to move closer to her. She estimated the distance between them, and she had strike first, hurling one of the handles out to strike hard at his chest, where she had figured out where his ribs should be. He took a few steps back as she retracted the handle, preparing for another strike. Unfortunately, he had recovered faster than she imagined.

He aimed at her unguarded side, and lunged forward, striking the side of her body. She felt a revolting feeling from her stomach and was about to either do something about it or blatantly ignore it, when a heavy weight fell upon her. The weight nearly crushed her bones. She thought it was Dave pinning her down with his physique, but she heard no taunts, no breathing from the old man. Then she felt warm liquid on the side where she had been hit.

Silence reached down to touch at it, bringing her stained fingers up to take a look. It was coated in ruby red liquid. Blood. But she had no idea whose blood it is.

While she was absorbed in her thoughts, a voice came from above her.

"Darling, are you all right?"

_Oh, it was _him_._

"Yeah, I'm okay." Silence answered, trying to wiggle out from beneath Dave's lifeless body. Royce flipped Dave over, minimizing Silence's efforts. The orange-haired girl panted, looking at the wound on the side of Dave's stomach, and her eyes followed the small trail of blood that leads to the pocket knife in Royce's hand. "Thanks for the help," she muttered. "I don't want him to be dead, though."

"No, he won't," Royce answered, wiping his knife with his shirt. "I coated some paralysis liquid on it, he'll be okay in a few hours. Come, let's get you on your feet."

When they got up, Tintin was already arriving at the Heavy Crimes cells with Snowy following closely at his side. "Hey," he greeted the pair. "Where's Zoe?"

**xXx**

When Zoe had realized her mistake, she quickly ushered everybody out and had instructed them towards the junkyard, where their freedom awaits. Then she heard Royce's orders and was about to follow it when she remembered her pet. The one who was still in Block B and having no clue as to what was happening around him.

She dashed towards the other block, thanking the gods for not bumping into any guards along the way there.

Until she realized that she was having too much luck.

Before she reached Block B, she heard sounds – ordering sounds – coming from it. Similar instructions to the junkyard. She wondered who he was; she swore that the voice was dead familiar to her. When she weaved through the inmates who was spilling out from their cells, she spotted a familiar patch of red. In a ponytail.

"Chris Renierre!" She was surprised that she still remembered his full name, despite said man only said it once during their first meeting. The red-head turned around, and in his arms was her pet, Shady, looking eager to see his owner.

"Ah, I figured you came," Chris said in a low whisper, grinning as he passed Shady over to Zoe. Then, in a lower whisper, Chris muttered in Zoe's ear. "Please don't tell them I'm here. I was supposed to drive the helicopter home but I crashed it because I was eager to join in the action." He said it with such speed that Zoe could never manage to catch it if he did not say it directly in her ear.

She nodded, and they bid each other goodbye, Zoe heading towards the Heavy Crimes cells while Chris stayed to help.

* * *

><p><strong>Remember how I said that I was on a hiatus because I need to prepare for my tests?<strong>

**Yeah. I ignored my duties and here I am!**

**I will take another long leave when it was November, though.**

**Meanwhile, enjoy this chapter!**

**~Velonica Sushi**


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